Never to Move Freely
by ckret2
Summary: [Energon] Everyone has had trouble in their past. Snowcat and Demolisher are no different. But Demolisher has worked past his demons. What will it take for Snowcat to get past his? [This fic is on hiatus and most likely dead. Don't expect updates soon.]
1. Ch1: Float

Hello, all! This is the start of a multi-chapter fanfic that'll have semi- regular updates and I might actually finish! What's my secret? I have most of it written out! ((does a dance)) This is an Energon fic. For those of you that haven't seen Energon yet (you have my pity) I'll fill you in on the necessaries. For those of you that have, you can skip the next paragraph.  
  
First, the Decepticons live inside Unicron's corpse. Creepy? Yeah. Megatron can somehow control parts of Unicron, and he occasionally shoves various Decepticons against the wall, makes Unicron wrap cables around them, and changes their bodies. In eppy 13, Cyclonus was one of the unfortunate victims of Megatron's hobby. He was whining that he needed to be fixed up after the last battle, so Megatron shoved him against the wall and "fixed" him, for sure: by changing him into Snowcat! Personally, I liked the name Cyclonus better... anyway, if you don't know what he looks like, just find the Snowcat toy (I recommend using to find it). He's got an all- terrain snow vehicle for an alt-mode, whatever that is, I didn't come up with the term, I calls it as I sees it. Seems that his favorite hobby is flying around above Earth, freezing asteroids with these two cannons attached to his back and shoving them into Earth's atmosphere, all while... yodeling. You heard me the first time, yodeling. His alt-mode has gone to his head. Anyway, the Autobots have formed this Energon shield around Earth that protects them, and they also have a moon base called Lunar City that has automatic guns that shoot at any Decepticons that get too close. And that's all ya need to know.  
  
Anyway, Cyclonus MIGHT have taken being turned into Snowcat well, but then, he might NOT. Various sources say that Seekers wouldn't want to live if they couldn't fly; is there any reason to believe this doesn't apply to all fliers? Even those with helicopter alt-modes? And when he's so abruptly changed from a flier to a car with skis... Well, Cyclonus can't be too happy about that. And how could he get such a high rank in the army if he doesn't have SOME sanity somewhere inside him? This is what I think Cyclonus really thinks about.  
  
Yes, I am certifiably insane. I have one of those medical dog tags and a white hospital bracelet to prove it.  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers Armada or Energon, and as long as we're talking, I don't own G1, G2, BW, BM, RiD, War Within, Universe, Neo something-or-other, and any other Japanese, American, or other TF series I've forgotten. I own Cyclonus/Snowcat's thoughts.  
  
.....  
  
Never to Move Freely  
  
But in the Vacuum of Space  
  
.....  
  
Cyclonus looked down at his feet and bit back a hysterical laugh. A slaggin' snow vehicle. And not even a particular snow vehicle, simply an "all-terrain snow vehicle."  
  
"How can a 'snow vehicle' be all-terrain?!? It's a SNOW vehicle!" he yelled at the stars. No one would hear him. No one can hear you in space.  
  
All-terrain. All-terrain except for the sky. Cyclonus couldn't believe it. The only way he could move freely from now on would be in the vacuum in space, and even then his movements would be hindered by the huge skis on his feet.  
  
Cyclonus spun around in frustration and shot an asteroid, freezing it. "ALL TERRAINS EXCEPT FOR THE ONE THAT MATTERS!" he screamed, shooting three more asteroids and kicking them all towards the Energon grid surrounding Earth. The shards were blasted back at him, scratching and denting his new body.  
  
Not able to control his movements, Cyclonus had to let himself drift towards an asteroid, and kicked off of it so he flew towards the moon. He should have known he would have eventually ended up in a mess like this. The way he acted, he was surprised something hadn't happened to him a long time ago. But he had never thought he would lose the power of flight.  
  
"But what was I supposed to do?" Cyclonus muttered. "I've been acting like a freak so long, I couldn't just start acting normal."  
  
Or would it have been better if he had?  
  
The first day he had joined the Decepticons, he was terrified he wouldn't be good enough to stay in the Decepticons. And no one trusted him. What reason had they to? He hadn't given them one yet. He was the mute one who stuttered out a yessir or no-sir when asked a question, tried to avoid the others, and occasionally tripped over his own two feet to get away from anyone who might try to talk to him. Rooms fell silent when he walked in, and stayed quiet when he left. Cyclonus was sure he wouldn't be in the Decepticons for long.  
  
His paranoia only built, and the fact he was trying so hard not to act like it bothered him finally made him lose it. It was in the middle of battle. They were being shot at like there was no tomorrow. Panicked, Cyclonus snapped for a second. He was never sure of his exact words, but he remembered he'd made some kind of crack about their being no tomorrow for the Autobots, and he charged into battle, guns blazing and giggling hysterically. He shut off his optics and shot at everything that moved and everything that didn't. A few minutes later, he froze. His optics were wide with horror and his arms were paralyzed in mid-air, still positioned to fire. What was he doing? What the slag did he just say?? He'd been standing so near the others, surely they heard him. They couldn't have missed his comment. And did he shoot any Decepticons?? He wasn't paying any attention!  
  
The battle still raged around Cyclonus. He didn't. He was frozen. He was lucky he didn't get shot. That was it, they'd write him off as some sick weirdo and he'd be dismissed from the Decepticons as soon as they got back to the base. Wait - no, not dismissed, simply executed. No one left the Decepticon Army alive. No, not even executed! Maybe locked down in the deepest parts of Cybertron... where they kept so-called psychos...  
  
When they got back, everyone else was joking with each other. They didn't fall silent when Cyclonus walked by. One Decepticon had grabbed his arm as he went by and repeated his joke to the group. They all laughed and congratulated him on the way he had fought. In his moment of insanity, he had killed more Autobots than even the most experienced Decepticons there had. He just stood there, trying to keep his jaw from dropping. He was finally one of them.  
  
So, he knew the trick. Crack a few jokes, and you're one of the group. Act casual. Act funny. Be Joke Boy, they like that.  
  
Cyclonus swept the surface of the moon with an arc of ice, and was rewarded when the automatic weapons guarding Lunar City started shooting at him. He glided through space as fast as he could, gravity eventually forcing him to land on the dark side of the moon.  
  
"If I could still fly I wouldn't have had to land," Cyclonus muttered. He glanced around uncomfortably. Even if he was on the other side of the moon, Lunar City wasn't far off. Stupid Earth with its stupid tiny moon.  
  
Cyclonus looked at his feet. Correction, looked at his /skis/ sitting in the moon dust. The humans had a word connecting to this rock. "Lunatic." It meant you were driven crazy by the moon. That had pretty much happened to Cyclonus. Countless eons were spent trying to fight the Autobots, keep up his mask, and act emotionally stable around his endless joking and pranking. Psychologist after psychologist had tried to get inside his head to figure out why he acted so wild and they all failed. They all eventually came to the conclusion he was looking for attention. Contrary to popular belief, it was because he didn't want attention.  
  
Keeping up such a balancing act would tax anyone's sanity. Cyclonus was no exception. Until, finally, he was stranded on a tiny rock with only seven Transformers to talk to, and half of them were Autobots. In such small quarters, if he disappeared for an hour or two, it'd be noticed. He had to stay around the others at all times.  
  
He. Couldn't. Take. It.  
  
He needed some way to vent the pressure. The occasional battle wasn't enough. But he had to act at least slightly respectable around his commander, didn't he? He had to be a good little Decepticon, do everything Megatron told him to do, and make a few little jokes to keep everyone happy. But it took less than a day for him to realize that no one cared. He could blow up Cybertron and as long as the Bots died too no one cared. Starscream was a hundred times more unstable than Cyclonus was. Cyclonus could do anything he wanted and, for once, no one would care.  
  
Well, that was great and that was dandy and he wouldn't have to act anymore except, when you spend eons acting like someone you aren't, you can't just suddenly decide to stop and expect to be okay. His motherboard had reprogrammed itself to think "I have to act like Joke Boy until the day I can stop," but he had never really thought forward to when he could stop. Cyclonus just couldn't believe it'd be that easy. He could stop now, if he wanted to. But he couldn't.  
  
Joke Boy. That's who Cyclonus was, the Joke Boy. A Marx brother with machine guns. And he couldn't change that.  
  
.....  
  
Meh, kinda weird ending. Chapters 1 and 2 were originally going to be together, but I cut it in half so it'd make more sense.  
  
Yes, I know I have a weird opinion on Cy's thoughts, so sue me. I'm a FANFIC writer! I can make him think anything I want! I AM SUPERIOR! I CAN MAKE MEGATRON FALL IN LOVE WITH A PENGUIN'S LEFT FOOT! Um... ((shudder)) Lucky for you, I am revolted by that idea. ((yecch)) Anywho, I always like to hear back from fellow Transfans, so lemme know what you think. Thankee.  
  
ckret2 


	2. Ch2: You May Learn Something

Hiya! I'm actually posting this chapter five days after I posted the first chapter! I NEVER post a new chapter less than a month after the last update, much less in under a week! I'm pleased with myself. :-)  
  
Pivot: Thankee for all the bonus points, how many do I get? I personally don't think Energon's really in trouble, though some of the G1 fans on other boards beg to differ... I'm enjoying it, yodeling and all. Alpha Q ROOOOOCKS for no reason other than in episode 19 or 20 he goes straight from baddie to goodie and gets a cool voice to boot!  
  
Haley Macrae: Yeah, I like getting new perspectives on characters too. Expect to see either this perspective or a similar one in future fics. Listen to Cyclonus, Haley! Dooo a Cyclooonus fiiic... (I read Hypnotism for Dummies last night) Glad to finally meet someone else who likes Cy's jokes, though sometimes they're not funny for any reason other than they're not. My fave quote is from Armada. One of the Autobots shot Cyclonus' rotor off, and he yelled "YOU SHOT MY BUTT OFF!!" It's a lot funnier if you see it, but I liked that. I did. So I'm immature.  
  
White-Winged Angel: Me too. And, as you requested, here is chapter 2, and it actually IS soon! I so happy...  
  
Soryu: Strange? Thankee. I take it as a compliment! To be honest, I expected something between utter befuddlement to outright flames in most of my reviews. I am a rebel from normalcy in fics, and apparently people like that. Too bad it doesn't work like that at school, or I'd be the most popular person there.  
  
Shade- S.E.C. of Nothing: You like Cyc/Snowcat fics? Well, glad I could give ya one. And as you requested, here is chapter two!  
  
If anyone's wondering, yes, this is about Snowcat, though for no really obvious reason I'm calling him Cyclonus. It is an Artistic Decision(TM). Y'know, like those guys who made movies in B&W just because they think it looks better even though color was available by then.  
  
Kezarahk: Glad you liked my version. I do stuff like this a lot, take the official material and somehow change up the story. That's just what I do.  
  
Thank you for all the reviews! Next update is Friday (I have the next chapter done already. SQUEEK!), so be looking for that!  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers. I don't own M&M's either. I just thought I'd say that in case there is any question in the future.  
  
.....  
  
Try not to fear when you can't move  
  
You may notice something new  
  
Something about yourself you hadn't found  
  
And don't want to  
  
.....  
  
Cyclonus was still standing on the moon, in plane sight if any other Transformers happened to be in the neighborhood. And the only Transformers that were ever "in the neighborhood" were Autobots.  
  
He sighed quietly, and started to move forward. He couldn't just stay on the moon, so close to Lunar City. Unfortunately, he'd barely taken a step when he tripped over his own feet.  
  
Cyclonus fell on his side. "STUPID SKIS!" he shouted, shooting them. "YOW!!" That was stupid AND painful. Impressive, even for Cyclonus. Carefully, he folded his skis up against his legs, so he could walk normally again.  
  
"So how do I get off this rock?" he muttered. Wait - the old Decepticon moon base! When they had gone back to Cybertron, most of it had been left untouched. Maybe the old warp gate was still there.  
  
Looking around, he realized he wasn't so far from the old base. Transforming, he started off, wincing as the small moon rocks rubbed against the runners of his alt-mode. 'All-terrain,' he thought sarcastically, but kept driving through the pain. He may whine a lot, but that was only because he couldn't think of anything else to say. When he ran out of bad puns, he couldn't just be silent, and if he tried to just /talk,/ who KNEW what would come out! So he ended up whining to fill the silence.  
  
'And it's because of that I can't fly,' he reminded himself bitterly, just before the abandoned base came into site. Finally reaching it, he transformed and climbed clumsily up the side of the mountain that the moon base was imbedded in. Hopping on top of the broken ship, he shot the roof and kicked through the frozen patch of metal, falling through to the floor.  
  
He looked around the abandoned base. It looked exactly as it had ten years ago. Nothing had moved in it except for the part of the roof Cyclonus kicked in. Taking a small step forward, the corridors lit with a dim light. The motion-sensing lights still worked fine, meaning there was still enough power in the base to keep it functional.  
  
'This is too creepy,' Cyclonus thought. 'I almost expect Thrust to come around the corner and ask why I'm not doing whatever I'm supposed to be doing.' Hearing a sound behind him, Cyclonus whirled around. "It's not my fault, Thrust! It was, erm, Demolisher's..." He trailed off, realizing that he'd only heard another piece of frozen metal fall from the hole he had made. "Geez, something else like that happens, and I really will be a mental case," he muttered, starting off down the corridor.  
  
He remembered where the warp room was. Right turn, left turn, first door on the right. But the next hallway up had everyone's personal quarters, including his own. He could stop to see his old room.  
  
Cyclonus stopped in front of the identification pad. You were supposed to press your palm onto it and it would identify you and let you in. Transformers don't have fingerprints like humans, obviously, so the pads had to identify separate handprints by shape, paint color, the style of the joints, all that. Cyclonus glanced at his hand. This dried-mud colored hand had nothing in common with his old, onyx-black ones. There was no way the identification pad would recognize him. Still...  
  
Cyclonus pressed his hand against the pad, and jumped half his height when the door swooshed open. After figuring out he wasn't under attack, Cyclonus peered further into the room. "It worked?" he said to himself, staring wide- eyed at what couldn't possibly be anything but his room. He didn't think any of the other Decepticons had a green neon sign that said HOKEY-POKEY hung upside down. "That shouldn't have worked," he muttered, stepping into his room. The pad was probably messed up after ten years.  
  
Cyclonus glanced around. Everything was the same as it had been. His recharge berth, his computer, and his sign. That was all there was in the room. He suddenly wondered why he'd wanted to get in so bad. There was nothing in here he needed. He had never used the computer, and the HOKEY- POKEY sign was okay but he didn't want to take it with him. The moon had never held anything but bad memories for him.  
  
Cyclonus left the room quickly, deciding he had spent enough time in there. He started down the hall, but the door directly to his left caught his eye.  
  
It was Demolisher's room.  
  
Cyclonus stopped. This was an opportunity to finally get inside his friend's mind! Demolisher had in the past learned a lot about how Cyclonus thought, but he'd never told Cyclonus much about himself. And there were a lot of unexplained things about him. Like why he had practically worshipped Megatron before he died. And why, after Megatron was resurrected, Demolisher was so reluctant to go back to the Decepticons.  
  
"I can just take a quick peek, right?" Cyclonus said, pressing his hand to the identification pad. The light over the pad flashed red.  
  
Cyclonus stopped and looked at it. So, Demolisher's pad was still working. No problem. Cyclonus froze the door and kicked it down.  
  
He had only taken one step into the dark room before he began to feel guilty. He was breaking into his only friend's room. And why? Maybe Demolisher had some reason he didn't tell Cyclonus anything about himself. Cyclonus knew he himself did.  
  
"Well, it'd be better if I told someone, wouldn't it?" Cyclonus muttered, trying to pacify his conscience. Yes, he had a conscience; it just didn't care when he was brutally murdering Autobots. "If Demolisher has some deep, dark secret he's been keeping locked away, it'd be better if it got out, right?" Cyclonus took another step into the room, crunching more frozen metal shards under his feet, and the motion-sensing lights flared on.  
  
Just the recharge berth and computer found in everyone's room. Feeling a little less guilty, Cyclonus stepped farther in, the frozen metal still crunching. Until something else went crunch.  
  
Cyclonus looked down. He had just smashed the side of a datapad. He bent down and picked it up, freezing halfway through standing up and staring, optics wide behind his mask, at the floor.  
  
Literally dozens of datapads were strewn on the floor, in some places piled three or four thick. There were enough to stack two wide, two deep and still be taller than Cyclonus. He slowly stood up.  
  
'Demolisher was the only clean guy in the moon base. He picked up everything we left around the base. So what's with his room?'  
  
Cyclonus suddenly remembered the datapad he was holding. He looked back down at it, judged the crushed side wouldn't affect the actual contents, and turned it on. It was as good a place as any to start.  
  
'What the slag??' Cyclonus thought. It was some legal junk. Waaaaay over Cyclonus' head. He tossed it on the recharge berth – the only non-datapad covered place in the room – and picked up another one. Another legal thing.  
  
Cyclonus looked over this one. It wasn't a regular mission report: Cyclonus had filled out enough of those to know what they looked like. It wasn't a promotion notice, a damage report, or an equipment request... they were all short and to the point. This looked like some kind of a treaty. Or a contract.  
  
'Weird,' Cyclonus thought, chucking the second datapad onto the berth and picking up another one. More legal stuff. The fourth was some kind of how- to document. It was titled "The Law for Dummies". Cyclonus snorted. Apparently, Demolisher didn't get half this stuff either.  
  
Cyclonus looked around the room for any datapad that looked different from the others. He stopped on a datapad in the corner. 'Is that thing even functional?'  
  
Kicking aside datapads as he walked, Cyclonus stopped and picked up the damaged one. It was covered front and back in dents that almost changed its original form. There were cracks all over from ripped metal, and many of them had been welded over. Scorch marks from laserfire were visible all over. The glass screen had a spider webbed crack in the bottom right that scotch tape held together. Despite all the damage, someone wanted to keep this datapad.  
  
Cyclonus turned it on, and sighed. Yet another legal document. But, all the damage made him curious, and it was short, so Cyclonus decided to read through it after all.  
  
"The members of the Cybertronian Autobot Faction (represented in this contract by Optimus Prime) hereby claim all rights to the prisoner of war Demolisher's spark, mind, body, and health, in return for Demolisher's right to life."  
  
That was it. Below, it was signed by Prime, Demolisher and two witnesses. Both witnesses were Autobots.  
  
"What the heck??" Cyclonus said. Since when was Demolisher a prisoner of war? Disgustedand perplexed, Cyclonus got ready to toss the datapad on the berth and pick up another one, when something clicked in his mind. He froze. He reread the datapad.  
  
"HE DID WHAT?!??"  
  
Demolisher, Cyclonus' only friend, was a slave of the Autobots.  
  
.....  
  
SUSPENSE!! Heheheh. I guess you'll have to read the next part on Friday to figure out just why Demolisher's a slave. Oh, and REVIEW!! Please. 


	3. Ch3: Can't Breath

So, here's chapter 3! And you guys finally get to find out why Demolisher's a slave. I'm so mean, making you guys wait all week...  
  
Haley Macrae: Deep? Thank you, thank you muchos.  
  
White-Winged Angel: Yes, it was a bit of a surprise, wasn't it? That was the point! Glad you like the feel to this story (I got the tone right! That's about the first time in my LIFE! Yee!), and glad you like how I customized Cy's and Demolisher's rooms. I like that sign... I wanna HOKEY- POKEY sign in my room!! And yes, now it IS Friday.  
  
Soryu: Thank you. I'm glad I'm keeping Cyclonus basically in character... hope I can KEEP it that way. Demolisher will be making his first appearance at the end of this chapter, and he'll be in chapter 4 all the way through it. Not sure how much he'll be in five, though, haven't written that out yet. Anyway, glad you like, and don't worry, I won't leave this unfinished.  
  
Hotshot94: Okay then! Here's an update! And here's what happens next.  
  
Feral Prime: Oh yeah... he did, didn't he... Eh, aren't I allowed to have creative liberties? This fic is already going against everything we've seen about Cyclonus in Armada and Energon, so I guess that's just another detail I'll have to pretend never happened. Thankee for the imput, though.  
  
Ducks Quack: ((picks up jaw)) It makes sense? Thankee!! Glad you like.  
  
Duel Mistress K: Aaah. Thank you, I didn't remember the exact line. I just remembered how utterly ridiculous and completely hilarious it was. And don't worry about useless, incoherent ranting! I do it before every fic. ((looks around and clears throat nervously)) I think I just offended my Author's Notes...  
  
Shade- S.E.C of Nothing: And you will find out in this chapter. Don't worry, I won't take advantage of the love of your heart meats. Then again, I AM kinda hungry...  
  
Saikoro: No problem! Here it is!  
  
Okay, so there's that, and now here's this! The end of my useless, incoherent ranting!  
  
Disclaimer: No. No I do not. So don't even ask. Don't... even... THINK the question! The answer is NO I DO NOT HAVE THE KARAOKE VERSION OF "LUCKY"!!! And, um, I don't own Transformers either.  
  
Come to think of it, how DID the karaoke version of "Lucky" get on my computer...?  
  
.....  
  
You may notice something new  
  
Something about yourself you hadn't found  
  
And don't want to  
  
Your greed  
  
While you can't move  
  
The one beside you can't breath  
  
.....  
  
Demolisher was an Autobot slave. And had been for several million years, according to the datapad. And nobody even knew it. AND, lastly, he had signed the contract WILLINGLY. It had his name at the bottom!  
  
"And what's all this 'prisoner of war' junk??" Cyclonus asked the datapad, and when it didn't answer he tossed it on the berth and picked up another. It had been written with a stylus, not typed. Cyclonus recognized Demolisher's handwriting. It looked like some kind of a journal.  
  
Cyclonus scrolled up to the top. "Hey, that's the day Demolisher joined the Decepticons!" Cyclonus said. He suddenly wondered how Demolisher had handled the pressure of being the "new guy" in the army. But he couldn't look now. He wanted to find out what was up with that contract.  
  
He scrolled down. The last sentence was chopped off, and a typed message below said, "MEMORY FILLED. PLEASE SAVE AND TURN OFF."  
  
Cyclonus groaned. Whatever Demolisher had written about the contract would be in another datapad. Wherever it was.  
  
Cyclonus grabbed the first datapad that caught his eye. Unlike the datapad with the contract, this one had been polished and re-polished until it looked like it could glow in the dark. There wasn't a single smudge on the glass. Cyclonus turned it on. The only thing on it was one short message:  
  
"OPTIMUS PRIME'S MOTHER IS LEADER-1!!!"  
  
Cyclonus bit back a laugh. He could see why Demolisher had taken care of this. Though he didn't usually seem the type to just write an angry message like that. Maybe it had something to do with the contract.  
  
Cyclonus cleared a space on the floor and put the datapad down reverently. He'd take that back with him and hang it in Megatron's room. Either his boss would make it his new favorite possession or Cyclonus would get slagged. Probably both. It'd be worth it, though. That thing was golden. Too bad Cyclonus didn't have his own room to hang it in. Unicron didn't have very much in the way of rooms.  
  
Cyclonus picked up another datapad and turned it on. This one was poetry. Cyclonus' optics flickered, the Transformers' equivalent of a blink. "Demolisher reads poetry?" Cyclonus said. Above the first poem was the date Demolisher had added it to the datapad. Cyclonus turned it off and added it to the cleared space with the polished datapad. That one he'd have to look at later.  
  
The next datapad was it. It started only a couple of weeks before the date on the contract. Cyclonus started reading. He was only a few days before the date of the contract and... it just skipped it. Demolisher had continued writing about a week after the date, and didn't even mention it. He was just talking about this sabotage mission his squad was about to go on with another Decepticon squad from just south of Iacon. They were supposed to blow up this small Autobot fortress—  
  
"Hey... MY squad was from south of Iacon!" Cyclonus said suddenly. Maybe this had been the mission he'd met Demolisher on? He tried to remember if it had been a sabotage mission, couldn't, then gave up and read on.  
  
A few entries later, Demolisher mentioned Cyclonus. Cyclonus read the next part carefully.  
  
"Not many of the mechs on the other squad were very good. This was a sabotage mission, and apparently most of them are used to explicit orders about what to do. They didn't seem to get that they just had to SHOOT THE FORTRESS! I think their squad was sent on this mission just because of that Cyclonus. He was better than all of us combined. He has a flying alt mode I've never seen before, one with rotor blades. He didn't come out of it once the whole time. He just zoomed around the fort attacking like there was no tomorrow. He even rammed the side, and then he laughed! Cyclonus must be completely crazy... but he's a pretty good fighter."  
  
Cyclonus grinned wanly. "Guilty as charged."  
  
"When the mission was over we went back to our temporary outpost. I finally got to see Cyclonus' face. He was talking with the others and cracking stupid jokes about the Autobots. He's definitely weird, but there's one thing I respect about him: he's the only mech other than me who didn't get over-energized when we got back."  
  
Cyclonus remembered that now. He and Demolisher were the only Decepticons there who could still talk intelligibly an hour after they had got back, so they had talked to each other.  
  
"Cyclonus is a lot less weird when you get him away from a big group. He actually made sense most of the time. I think he's a lot less happy most of the time than he lets on. He didn't say so, but I could see it in his optics."  
  
Cyclonus was surprised. Demolisher had seen that?  
  
"He said he never gets over-energized because he's afraid of what he might say. He said it like he was just worried he'd insult his boss or something, but I think that what he really meant is that he's afraid he'd tell a secret. Just like me.  
  
"I wonder if what happened to me happened to him, too?"  
  
"What?" Cyclonus said. What was Demolisher talking about here?  
  
Cyclonus skimmed through the next several entries, until he saw one that looked different. The handwriting looked like it had been written quickly. And Demolisher's hand had been trembling. Cyclonus started reading.  
  
"I left some stuff out earlier. From right before the sabotage mission. From the failed mission. I should try to get it out now, before I lose my nerve again."  
  
'Failed?' Cyclonus thought. Demolisher hadn't said anything about a failed mission.  
  
"It was a secret op. We were supposed to sneak into the Autobot's main stronghold and free some of the prisoners of war. Most of the Decepticons were rescued. Everyone got out. Except for me.  
  
"I guess it /was/ a successful mission, then, except for my part."  
  
"What are you TALKING about??" Cyclonus demanded. He seemed to be forming a habit of talking to datapads.  
  
"The Autobots caught me before I could get out, and locked me in one of the cells. It wasn't very hard, I was outnumbered and we were right by the cells - they just had to shove me in.  
  
"This was the Autobots' headquarters, so Optimus Prime was there. He came to my cell the next day and slipped a datapad through the bars. He said that he would let me live if I signed it. Prime and two witnesses had already signed it, and dated it. I refused to."  
  
"Good for you," Cyclonus said quietly, but he already knew that by the end Demolisher would sign it.  
  
"Prime left it there, in case I 'reconsidered his offer.' He told me I had a week to take his offer, because he had already scheduled my reprogramming.  
  
"Reprogramming would be worse than death. All my old memories would be wiped, and my Decepticon programming would be deleted and replaced with Autobot programs. I'd be forced to fight my own army without knowing it. But I didn't even let myself look at that datapad.  
  
"When they came to take me to be reprogrammed, I handed them a signed datapad instead."  
  
Cyclonus felt a churning in his fuel tank he didn't like. In human terms, it's akin to very strong nausea.  
  
"I still hadn't read it. I wish I had. I am now a slave to the Autobot Army. They let me go back to the Decepticons, and I told everyone I had gotten lost on the way back. Yes, for a week and a half. No big, I was fine.  
  
"I wish the Autobots had killed me. As long as I'm alive, they own me. They gave me the 'right to life' in their contract. If I die, I'm free."  
  
Cyclonus stared at the last words. If Demolisher died, he would be free. And it sounded like he was considering it.  
  
'But this happened millions of years ago!' Cyclonus reminded himself. 'He would have done it by now, right?'  
  
Right?  
  
Cyclonus skipped forward to the end of the datapad, hoping there'd be some kind of assurance his friend would be okay in the last entry.  
  
"It took over forty treaties and contracts, but I've finally gotten a little more freedom. I can be a full-fledged Decepticon until the war ends and Megatron dies, and then I'm an Autobot. Not an Autobot slave, an AUTOBOT. Well, when Megatron dies a lot of Decepticons will probably switch sides anyway, but when I switch, they're going to overwrite most of my programming with Autobot programs. They'll let me keep my memories, but I'll have to behave like them. I won't want to be a Decepticon. That scares me. Even more than the situation I'm in now.  
  
"Hopefully Megatron will outlive me. But I want to see the end of the war, if nothing e  
  
"MEMORY FILLED. PLEASE SAVE AND TURN OFF."  
  
Cyclonus stared at the message. It took a few seconds for him to realize that the entry was over. That explained everything. Cyclonus got it now.  
  
((Why Demolisher practically worshipped Megatron. Why he softened so much during his ten years with the Autobots, even though none of the other Cons had.))  
  
Cyclonus slowly put the datapad back on the ground, where he had found it.  
  
((Why Demolisher wasn't like any of the other Decepticons anymore.))  
  
He kicked the datapad under the recharge berth.  
  
((Why Demolisher had been so reluctant to rejoin the Decepticons.))  
  
Cyclonus bent down, picked up the two datapads he had placed aside, and headed out.  
  
((Why Demolisher had never told Cyclonus anything.))  
  
Cyclonus suddenly froze, ice flowing through his wires. What had he just DONE?!?  
  
What had he just read about Demolisher's life? HAD IT BEEN ANY OF HIS BUSINESS?!  
  
Cyclonus got the same feeling he had gotten before in his fuel tank, except much stronger and worse. In human terms, he felt the way someone does a few seconds before they projectile-vomit their whole dinner at three a.m. Flaming hot, sick, a strange feeling in their lower jaw that always signifies it's about to come up, and a panicked feeling twisting their guts and trying to tell them that this is more than just a little virus.  
  
"Primus, why did I DO that?!" Cyclonus raved, kicking the wall, then fell backwards, still unbalanced in his new body.  
  
How could he have done that? Demolisher was his only friend, and Cyclonus was Demolisher's. What did it say about their "friendship" if Cyclonus couldn't even be trusted to keep out of Demolisher's room? He pounded the ground in rage. "I shouldn't have seen these datapads," Cyclonus hissed. He pulled back his arm to throw the two datapads he held across the room, when he caught his reflection. Below the berth was the datapad Cyclonus had kicked, showing him exactly what he looked like. Sitting on the ground angrily, ready to start throwing things in a fit of rage, he looked like a child having a temper tantrum. Slowly, Cyclonus lowered his arm.  
  
"Why am I trashing Demolisher's room? Cyclonus muttered. "He didn't do anything wrong." Slowly, Cyclonus stood up. "It's too late to change it now. All that stuff happened millions of years ago, and I can't unread it, right?"  
  
He got a different feeling, now. Like after you've puked. Your stomach's empty and your throat is raw, but you feel much, much better, now that it's over. He'd read it and he couldn't change that, he could just accept it.  
  
Or pretend it never happened.  
  
Cyclonus gave the room one last look, and finally left.  
  
...  
  
Demolisher was walking through one of the tunnels in Unicron, staring at the wall and becoming increasingly paranoid. It was just so... creepy. The walls looked like they were MOVING. Yeesh.  
  
He had just decided to go outside and try to look for the absent Decepticon (it would be an excuse to leave), when said Decepticon appeared half a foot in front of him.  
  
"GAAH!" Demolisher yelled, jumping backwards. "Oh, Snowcat, it's you. Don't do that!"  
  
'My name is not "Snowcat,"' Cyclonus thought. 'It was Cyclonus and as far as I'm concerned always will be!' Instead, Cyclonus just said, "Well sor- ry! How was I supposed to know you were going to be in the way?"  
  
Demolisher half-grinned. "Good point. D'you want to get out of here for a while? This place is giving me the creeps."  
  
Cyclonus shook his head. "I just spent waaay too much time outside, thank you. Getting gunned down by Autobots. Not that they ever actually hit." Cyclonus let out one of his trademark laughs. "I flew a no-hitter!" Demolisher chose to ignore Cyclonus' comment, which was just as well. Cyclonus was just keeping up his mask and, Cyclonus realized, Demolisher was keeping up one of his own. So Demolisher had some messed up programming now. That was okay. Cyclonus was a lunatic in the most literal sense.  
  
"So where were you?" Demolisher asked.  
  
Cyclonus shrugged. "Oh the moon, visiting the old Decepticon base. Good times, eh?"  
  
Demolisher shook his head. "Better than living in Unicron's corpse." Cyclonus made a face as he realized that was just what they were doing. Well at least Transformers didn't rot like humans... that would have been REALLY revolting... "What were you doing at the base?"  
  
"Just using the warp gate," Cyclonus lied, "which is much cooler than what we have now. Some things just don't need to change."  
  
"But they do anyway. Who knows why?"  
  
Cyclonus wondered for a second if Demolisher had picked up on his double meaning, or if he was just continuing the conversation. It didn't really matter. Cyclonus couldn't ask him, and at least Demolisher had stopped asking Cyclonus questions.  
  
All Cyclonus had do was pretend he didn't know anything. That was fine, since the day he'd joined the Decepticons he'd been getting better and better at acting. He could just play the roll of Snowcat the Joke Boy.  
  
.....  
  
So, that's chapter 3! Not exactly what you'd call a happy ending, but since when did the Decepticons ever get a happy ending? (Stupid Autobots...)  
  
Chapter four will be up Wednesday! Please review 


	4. Ch4: Don't Let the Panic Catch You

Hi! And here is chapter 4, right on time! I never thought I'd be able to say that... I'm very happy to finally be updating something on time! Now if only I could do that for Sanctified By Oppression...  
  
White-Winged Angel: Thank you. And yes, Demolisher being reformatted is, indeed, going to be in this story, and is in this chapter.  
  
Saikoro: Thanks!  
  
Duel Mistress K: Go foam #1 hand thingies! Thanks for the review!  
  
Haley Macrae: Yes, I rather liked that twist myself. I was afraid the journal entries would sound kinda choppy, but if they made the story feel more realistic, then I'm glad I had them!  
  
Shade- S.E.C of Nothing: "Whooshreviewreviewreview"? Okay then... Glad you like the chapter, and glad you like how I'm handling Cy.  
  
Ducks Quack: There's a word I made up called Psychico, it means you're either a psychic psycho or a psycho psychic. I think that's me. Glad you think I'm good at this, it makes me feel... smiley and stuff. STUFF!! (erm, ignore that.)  
  
Pivot: Yeah, poor Leader-1. Decepticons in Unicron like leaving little kids in the control room of a missile base? Yes, it sure is. Luckily for the rest of the universe, Unicron's still half torn-up, and basically useless to the Decepticons till they get more Energon. You like the "I flew a no-hitter" line? Hah! I didn't think I could come up with a pun people like, much less a pun that sounds like something Cy would say. Thankee for the review. And, yes, I'll try to get back to Sanctified By Oppression.  
  
Seeker Nami: You're gonna kill the Autobots?!? ((pulls out bazooka)) Take me with you! But spare Ironhide. I like him. Demolisher and Cyclonus cute?? Erm... never really thought of it that way... Cute? Hmm... Giant evil transforming robots, "cute." My brain hurts.  
  
Okay, this fic starts some time after Demolisher gets his new body. For those who haven't seen Energon, an Energon shield (lethal to D-Cons) is just being activated, right where it'll hit Megatron, so Demolisher shoves him out of the way, gets fried, vows revenge on Prime (who happened to be fighting Megs when the shield activated), and blows up. Megatron saves Demolisher's spark and rebuilds him the next episode. He's about 50% more violent, likes beating the scrap out of Autobots, and dislikes sitting around as long as Autobots still exist somewhere in the universe. And did I mention he's a little psycho-ish? Except if Cyclonus/Snowcat isn't really a psycho (as I like to believe), than Demolisher in his new form isn't either. But, that's just my opinion.  
  
Anyway, on to chapter 4! YAY!  
  
Disclaimer: Why do I do one every chapter? Why?? Um, anyway, ((ahem)) I have a document to read from today. "The members of the first party, hereby referred to as the members of the first party..." I don't like this part. ((riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip)) Now then, "The members of the second party, hereby referred to as the members of the second," no, don't like this either. ((riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip)) "The members of the third party..." ((riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip)) "The members of the fourth..." ((riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip)) Um, I'm out of paper. Ah well. The Transformers don't belong to me, and neither does the above stupid quote from the Marx brothers' movie, "A Night at the Opera". They went through over ten parties.  
  
.....  
  
Never to move freely  
  
But in the vacuum of space  
  
Ice creeps down your back  
  
But statues can't feel cold  
  
Try not to fear when you can't move  
  
You may notice something new  
  
Something about yourself you hadn't found  
  
And don't want to  
  
Your greed  
  
While you can't move  
  
The one beside you can't breath  
  
Don't let the panic catch you  
  
You know you can move  
  
If you can escape your body  
  
Leave your cold statue to drift...  
  
((Cyclonus tossed the datapad down then. He didn't want to read anymore of Demolisher's selected poems. Most of them were just dull until he had become a slave. Then they had gotten disturbing. But this was the creepiest.))  
  
((He tried not to think about why. But he guessed maybe it was because of the line about greed. He knew who it was that couldn't breath.))  
  
((He didn't even notice the other reason – he wanted to leave his ground-bound body behind. It's a good thing he didn't think of that.))  
  
.....  
  
((Several weeks after Cyclonus' visit to the old Decepticon base...))  
  
There was, finally, a lull in the war. It might last several weeks, or only a few hours. It didn't matter to Cyclonus, as long as he got to get out of the base for a little bit. He couldn't stand being so near everyone all the time. And Shockblast was unbearable.  
  
Plus, there was the really creepy feeling someone was watching every move you made. And seeing as Megatron had control over Unicron's innards (which in itself is freaky), it was quite possible. Cyclonus didn't like being watched. He could never let his guard down.  
  
Cyclonus liked target practice. He got to go into space and let out any stress that had built up by blowing up asteroids, and he had a chance to sort out his thoughts. He had also discovered during one of his "target practice" sessions that when he had gotten his new body he had acquired the ability to yodel. He used this newfound ability every chance his got, as a little personal revenge. It was his way of telling Megatron, "See? This form was supposed to be punishment, but I can enjoy it! HAH!" Pitiful, to say the least, but Cyclonus also needed to remind himself that he wouldn't let this new body be the end of him. Besides, it was annoying, which fit his act perfectly.  
  
Cyclonus had warped out to an isolated asteroid field, galaxies away from Earth, Unicron, or Cybertron. It was just like all his other "target practice" sessions, except for one difference: This time, Demolisher had come with him.  
  
Cyclonus tried to concentrate on shooting asteroids, but it wasn't very easy with Demolisher running around behind him shooting whole groups of asteroids down with one launch from his grenade launcher. Eventually, one was bound to hit him. Besides, Cyclonus couldn't get the poem in Demolisher's datapad out of his head, or what it might mean to Demolisher himself.  
  
Whooping excitedly, Demolisher whizzed by Cyclonus, kicking easily from one asteroid to another. Cyclonus had only recently mastered the ability to do that. Demolisher had always had to do that to get around in space. As a flier, Cyclonus had never needed to know how.  
  
Until now.  
  
Cyclonus followed Demolisher, wondering if Demolisher regretted losing his old body at all. He didn't act like it. In fact, he seemed to like his new one more than his original.  
  
"How can you stand it?" Cyclonus said quietly.  
  
"What?" Demolisher said. Cyclonus cringed. He and Demolisher had been talking over comlink earlier. Apparently, Cyclonus had forgotten to turn it off.  
  
"Nothing, just talkin' to myself," Cyclonus said lightly, kicking off an asteroid to go in the opposite direction from Demolisher, aiming at and destroying a few asteroids to show him everything was fine.  
  
He slowed down when he saw Demolisher had kicked ahead of him and was blocking his way. "Yeeees?"  
  
"Seriously, Snowcat, do you expect me to buy that?" Demolisher said wearily. "I know it's not 'nothing.'"  
  
"Why do you say that?" Cyclonus asked, trying to sound casual.  
  
"Snow, you hit every asteroid you shot at! You can never hit anything unless you're trying not to think about something."  
  
Oops. Cyclonus shrugged, looking away from Demolisher. The one good thing about his facemask is he didn't have to act as much as he would have otherwise. "Guilty as charged. But it's no biggie."  
  
"Well?" Demolisher prodded. "What's wrong? And what did you say earlier?"  
  
If Cyclonus had been human, he would have sighed. There was no way now that Demolisher would let him go without answering his questions. "I said, 'How can you stand it?' Stand your new body, I mean."  
  
"Why?" Demolisher asked suspiciously, looking down at himself. "It's not /that/ bad looking, is it?"  
  
Cyclonus smirked behind his facemask, and allowed a small chuckle to slip out. "No, I mean don't you miss your old one?"  
  
Demolisher thought for a few seconds. "No... not really. It was okay, but no better than this one. Why? Do you miss yours?"  
  
Cyclonus didn't answer for a moment. He looked around. Was there any way he could get some distance between himself and Demolisher so he wouldn't have to answer? If he yodeled loud enough, he wouldn't be able to hear if Demolisher called him. That wouldn't offend any Decepticon. They'd either persist or respect the other's privacy, and Demolisher was usually more of the latter. But someone with Autobot programming might be hurt...  
  
Cyclonus felt guilty all of the sudden. He wasn't supposed to know that. Demolisher deserved to know, so that they would be at least a little closer to being even. "I can't fly."  
  
Demolisher looked at Cyclonus as if expecting more, but no more came. Cyclonus had spoken and didn't want to do any more than the minimum. To the inferno with extra credit, he'd take a C.  
  
"That's all that's been bothering you the last few weeks?" Demolisher said, sounding unbelieving. "You can't fly? I've never been able to fly! What's the problem?"  
  
"What's the problem?!" Cyclonus said, surprised that Demolisher didn't get exactly what the problem was. They were supposed to understand each other. At LEAST Demolisher should be able to get how much the lack of flight hurt Cyclonus. "I know you've never been able to fly, but it's a big deal for me! I've always been able to fly! It'd be like you not being unable to walk. 'Never to move freely/But in the vacuum of space.' It's not a happy way to live!"  
  
If Cyclonus hadn't realized he had quoted one of Demolisher's poems, Demolisher probably would have dismissed the lines as coincidence. Maybe Cyclonus had read the same poem back on Cybertron, or he had just happened to say the same words. But as it was, Cyclonus did realize what he said, and proceeded to blow any illusions Demolisher might have had straight into next week.  
  
"Oh! Er, I... um... Oops." Cyclonus laughed nervously. "Uh, sorry?"  
  
Demolisher stared at Cyclonus in shock. "You read my datapad??" he asked. "But when..."  
  
(("So where were you?"))  
  
(("Oh the moon, visiting the old Decepticon base. Good times, eh?"))  
  
(("Better than living in Unicron's corpse. What were you doing at the base?"))  
  
(("Just using the warp gate, which is much cooler than what we have now. Some things just don't need to change."))  
  
(("But they do anyway. Who knows why?"))  
  
"Oh." Demolisher tried to think of something else to say. "I see."  
  
Cyclonus didn't apologize. It was a known fact and could be scientifically proven that Cyclonus didn't apologize unless he was trying to get something or being sarcastic. Even so, he wished he now more that he ever had that he could bring himself to apologize to Demolisher. Instead, he leaned uneasily against an asteroid, waiting for Demolisher to say something else.  
  
"So..." Demolisher paused. He didn't REALLY want to know, but... "How much did you read?"  
  
Cyclonus cringed. He was afraid Demolisher was going to ask that. "Um... I skimmed a couple of contract-thingies... read that really beat up datapad..." Demolisher swore quietly, but since the comlink was still on Cyclonus heard it, "... read the pad that said Leader-1 is Prime's mother, and I took it back with me, hope you don't mind... eh... and I read one of your personal datapads."  
  
"Which one?" Demolisher asked.  
  
"The one where you talked about meeting me," Cyclonus said, assuming Demolisher would remember what else was on that datapad and hoping he didn't.  
  
He did. Demolisher swore even louder.  
  
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that," Cyclonus mumbled.  
  
There was another long stretch of silence. But at least it wasn't because Demolisher was trying to keep himself from killing Cyclonus. He seemed to be taking the whole thing quite well. It looked more to Cyclonus like he was just figuring out what to say next.  
  
"That was a really stupid thing for me to do," Cyclonus finally said. It was the closest he could bring himself to apologizing. "D'you know... is there any way to, say... free you?"  
  
Demolisher looked up at Cyclonus. "What?"  
  
"Um, you know... to get you out of that mess."  
  
Demolisher stared at Cyclonus, as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. 'What? He doesn't believe that I'd want to help?' Cyclonus thought defensively, then shoved the idea aside.  
  
Demolisher finally grinned, slowly. "That isn't really a problem, Snow. But thanks for asking."  
  
Now Cyclonus was getting confused. Why was Demolisher grinning? "Why isn't it a problem?" Cyclonus asked before he could stop himself. "I mean, seriously, you're a slave! That sounds like a problem to me."  
  
"I'm not any more."  
  
"I mean it's just... Um, what?"  
  
Demolisher shook his head. "How closely did you read that contract?"  
  
Cyclonus looked carefully at Demolisher, trying to determine if he'd gone crazy. "Pretty closely..."  
  
"Then you know the terms of my 'enslavement?'"  
  
"Of course!" Cyclonus said. He couldn't forget them. "'The members of the Cybertronian Autobot Faction hereby claim all rights to the prisoner of war Demolisher's spark, mind, body, and...'"  
  
"Okay, I'm convinced. You know it," Demolisher interrupted. "Spark, mind, body and health in return for my right to life, right?"  
  
"Are you going somewhere with this?" Cyclonus asked.  
  
"You remember when I shoved Megatron aside and the Energon shield around the Miranda zapped me instead?"  
  
"Oh yes, I do," Cyclonus said, resisting the urge to shudder. The look on Demolisher's face had been one of the most terrifying things he'd seen in his life. It was right up there with Unicron destroying Cybertron.  
  
"The Autobots almost killed me, didn't they?"  
  
"Don't remind me," Cyclonus muttered.  
  
"And in the contract, I received the right to life from the very Autobots that tried to kill me, right?"  
  
Cyclonus was beginning to catch on. His optics widened. "So you're saying..."  
  
"They broke the contract, and if they don't hold up their end I don't have to hold up mine."  
  
"So, what, the contract's numb and volleyed?"  
  
Demolisher stared at Cyclonus, mystified. "'Null and void,' Snowcat?"  
  
"Tomaeto tomahto!" Cyclonus declared. "It'd dead, right?"  
  
"Exactly." That explained why Demolisher hadn't been too mad when he found out what Cyclonus had read. It didn't matter anymore.  
  
Demolisher grinned. "By the way, you've noticed I've been acting a little... different, lately?"  
  
"Yeah. What about it?"  
  
"Well, when Megatron gave me my new body, he also made a few modifications to my mind. Nothing big, I just have all my original Decepticon programming back." Demolisher's grin widened, and it was then Cyclonus noticed the malicious glint in his optics. "And having Decepticon honor codes, I'm afraid I must slag the scrap out of you for going into my room."  
  
"Oh. Okay. ... You ARE kidding, right?"  
  
Demolisher chuckled evilly. He sounded a lot like Megatron.  
  
"Oh, Primus!" Cyclonus kicked off the asteroid he was on and sped away from Demolisher as he fired the first round of grenades. "CAN'T WE TALK THIS OVER?!?"  
  
"TALK FAST!" Demolisher yelled, firing off more grenades. Cyclonus wouldn't be able to avoid them all for long. Might as well enjoy it.  
  
"Just try to catch me, you ex-Autobot!" Cyclonus taunted, and was rewarded by a roar from Demolisher.  
  
"I'll do better than that, you..." Demolisher paused, "you... ex... helicopter!"  
  
"Ooh, I'm quaking!" Cyclonus yelled sarcastically, then kicked of another asteroid, a fraction of a second before Demolisher blew it up. He sped towards the next asteroid, cackling like a maniac. And for once, he wasn't faking it.  
  
...  
  
Megatron heard Cyclonus and Demolisher pass behind him, yelling threats, and turned off his datapad. They sounded back to normal. Especially Demolisher. Good. Getting rid of those pesky Autobot programs had done wonders for his attitude. And his loyalty.  
  
"So how did 'target practice' go?" Megatron asked, turning. By the looks of them, he could guess.  
  
"It went great!" Demolisher yelled. "I think I'm much better at hitting moving targets."  
  
"I was the moving target," Cyclonus grumbled. He was covered in dents and asteroid dust.  
  
Megatron smirked. "Well, you can still talk, can't you, Snowcat?"  
  
"Well, yeah," Cyclonus whined, "but it hurts like-- Ohhh no. Nice try, but I'm not falling for that again!" He had been reformatted enough, in his opinion.  
  
"C'mon, Snowcat, let's go. You said you brought up the datapad with the thing about Optimus?"  
  
"Um, yeah, about that," Cyclonus sounded sheepish. "I hung it in Megatron's room."  
  
"You WHAT?!"  
  
"Well, it's not like I have a room to hang it in!" Megatron had made copies. He had even sent one to Ocean City.  
  
Demolisher was trying to keep himself from strangling Cyclonus. "I can't believe you... never mind. Let's just go." Demolisher turned to leave. Behind his back, Cyclonus gave him a mock salute and muttered, "Yes sir."  
  
When they had left, Megatron turned his datapad back on and continued writing. "Demolisher seems to have recovered, and I don't know the exact phrasing on his contract, never having seen it, but from what I can tell, by sacrificing himself to save me the contract is invalid. I'm not completely sure how that works, though. I plan on finding a copy of that contract. We may run into this problem with other Decepticons. I'm sure Demolisher wasn't the only one made a slave.  
  
"Cyclonus is still showing signs of depression after being changed into Snowcat. I didn't think it would affect him this badly. His history of depression must stretch back farther than I thought. It's too bad he doesn't keep a journal like Demolisher does: it would make tracking his problem a little easier. As far as I know it might even stretch back to joining the Decepticons. No matter. I suspect that Demolisher will be able to set him straight."  
  
Megatron shut his datapad off and prepared to go back to his private quarters, stopped, and turned it back on. "When he tries to be, Cyclonus can be excellent at masking his emotions. And he's a master at being disturbing. I think that after it's certain that Cyclonus has recovered, I might be able to employ him as an interrogator. Leave him in a room with an unarmed Autobot until they're sobbing, then offer freedom if they tell Cyclonus everything they know. Given enough time, he could possible crack Prime." Megatron smirked, shut off the pad for the final time, and went back to his quarters.  
  
.....  
  
Don't let the panic catch you  
  
You know you can move  
  
If you can escape your body  
  
Leave your cold statue to drift...  
  
((That was what Demolisher had done, in a way. Escaped his old body, into a new one, and was free again. This poem wasn't about escaping life, it was about escaping your old life and making a new one.))  
  
((But still...))  
  
((Cyclonus had dug himself in to deep. How could he escape his old life?))  
  
((He tried to block these thoughts and finish reading the poem.))  
  
Never to move freely  
  
Until you can accept...  
  
((Cyclonus gave up and put the datapad aside.))  
  
.....  
  
So that's chapter 4! A happy ending for Demolisher, but not yet for Cyclonus. Don't worry, Cyclonus might think he's dug himself in too deep, but I don't. I'll get him out of this yet. Just watch me! Next update Monday. It'll be the first chapter I post that isn't done before I post the current one. When I posted chapter 1, I had chapter 2 written, when I posted chapter 2, I had 3 written, et cetera, et cetera. But, even so, it will get done! This'll also be the first chapter I don't have planned out. Up 'till now I've known exactly what was going to happen. Chapter 5 will be an experiment, and also the last chapter. Don't worry, there'll probably be an epilogue... but the ending will be a surprise, even to me! So, wait for that. 


	5. Ch5: Shed Your Statue

Holy fish, this thing is LATE!! I am so, so, so sorry! I tried to upload this three times yesterday, but it JUST WOULD NOT WORK! It says something on the main page about a hard drive failure and people not being able to log in, but anyway I'm very sorry. Thank you for not brutally murdering me, and here, at long last and one day late, is chapter 5!

Hotshot94: I like it when people like how I mess with characters... thankee!

White-Winged Angel: Yeah, Cyclonus is functioning. It's typically a bad thing when your main character dies, and besides, I didn't want to deal with the flames. ;-)

Shade- S.E.C of Nothing: I like the whooshreview noises! And I'm glad you like the fic.

Duel Mistress K: Yeah, I know, Demolisher the ape. O.o;;;;;;;; Freaky. I've decided I'll just have him act normal in my fic. He can run around like an ape in the parts between chapters.

Saikoro: Thankee muchos.

The-Crab: Yay! You'll recommend it! That means MORE reviews! ((heheheh...)) I kinda liked the idea of the death voiding the contract myself, but only because it's kinda clever and I didn't want to do something like a Heroic Battle Scene. I'm not very good at those. You like the other slave ideas? Hmm... I hadn't thought about writing any of them in... ooh, inspiration!! Thank you, now I have another fanfic in my head I'll never write!

Ducks Quack: ((hides Demolisher in my closet)) Eek! Don't hurt him, this fic'd be dead without him! Besides, I like 'im. He's my... ((counts fingers)) Erm, about my third fave character in Energon. LET HIM LIIIIIVE!!! But thanks for the reviews.

It seems that, between the fourth chapter and this one, there has been a change in plans. While writing this chapter, I was thinking for some yet to be discovered reason about Galvatron in the G1 series. In the movie Unicron controlled Galvs through this device that gave him nasty jolts when he disobeyed him, and somehow those two ideas got twisted together, and I ended up with a ((fanfare, please)) PLOT IDEA!! And so, there are several more chapters of fanficcy goodness. The way things are going. I'm never going to get back to Sanctified By Oppression. Or any of my other fics, for that matter. Eh, ah well. The point is, this is indeed not the last chapter, but maybe somewhere past halfway.

Disclaimer: Hasbro owns Transformers, the two quotes I stuck in have their sources written below them, the basic plot of this fic belongs to me, and (in case there was any question) the poem I keep dishing out little pieces of was written by me.

Onward, allies and friends, towards a new day! a bright future! and Chapter 5!

.....

We are discovering, and soon will demonstrate with more rigorous scientific proofs, that one of the reasons why people fail to grow, why they fail to fulfill many of their potentialities as persons, why they frequently fall ill, is because their daily mode of existence among people is characterized by impersonality, by playing roles, by self-manipulation and manipulation of others, by failure or inability to be and disclose themselves to respond in personal emotional honesty to them.

((Episcopal Church, Basic Reader in Human Relations Training, Part II, pg. 28))

.....

Don't let the panic catch you

You know you can move

If you can escape your body

Leave your cold statue to drift

Never to move freely

Until you can accept

That there's more than one way to move

You're freer than you think

.....

It was always the worst during battle.

Not being able to fly, that is. It was worse when Cyclonus fought on the ground. Seeing a burst of laserfire flying towards him, and knowing he could escape it if he could get into the air, but he couldn't.

And so he was hit.

...

Cyclonus sat in the shallow Energon pool, his back against the wall, letting the currents flow over him. He had been badly damaged in battle, so even though it hurt like the inferno Cyclonus had to stay in the Energon until it repaired him.

Cyclonus idly dipped his right hand in the Energon. A painful jolt shot up to his shoulder, but he ignored it, swirling the liquid Energon with his hand. He had felt worse, and besides, there wasn't really anything he could do about it.

He was bored. Very very bored, and thus looking for sources of amusement. 'Megatron can somehow control Unicron,' he thought. 'In this pool, I'm connected directly into all of Unicron through the Energon in him. Maybe I can control Unicron too.' Why not? He didn't have anything better to do.

"Okay, Unicron, listen up!" Cyclonus said. "Since you're dead and need the Energon I'm sitting in, you gotta do what I say!" Fuzzy logic, but who cared? It was Cyclonus logic. "Now I order you to make me my old body, with a propeller so I can fly! No, scratch that, I want wings! Make me a seeker!" Cyclonus sat back, waiting for the magic. "No? Okay, then, in that case, just make my original body. Fine. I'll wait. You're obviously putting all your efforts into repairing my current body, even though it's stupider that my original one. So I'll just wait till you're done, okay?" Cyclonus sat back contentedly in the Energon pool, assured that as soon as he was fully repaired he'd be able to get his old body back.

Yeah, right. And now Cyclonus was bored again.

"Hey Snowcat," Demolisher said, walking up. Hmm. Maybe Cyclonus wouldn't be bored after all.

"Come to visit a victim of war?" Cyclonus asked. "You always were nice like that. Didja bring me flowers and a card?"

"Flowers and a card??" Demolisher shook his head. "You spent too much time watching TV in the last ten years."

"There wasn't anything else to do on the moon. What's the point of a defense outpost if there's nothing to defend against?" Cyclonus said lightly. "Did you come to tell me I won the Purple Heart, then?"

"No, just coming to tell you Megatron gave you the rest of the day off. Oh, and he said I'm supposed to watch you to make sure you don't do anything stupid." Demolisher sat down in from of Cyclonus and leaned forward, staring intently at him. "You, Snowcat, must be watched especially closely."

Cyclonus glared at Demolisher, then reached up and poked him between the optics with his Energon-soaked hand, giving him a nice little shock. Demolisher let out a satisfying yelp and fell backwards. Cyclonus chuckled quietly.

"That wasn't very nice," Demolisher pointed out unnecessarily, scooting backwards a few feet.

"Since when were Decepticons 'nice'?" Cyclonus asked. "Whatever gets the job done goes."

"Guess so," Demolisher said, then suddenly changed the subject. "Hey, we never finished our conversation last week."

"That was your fault, Mr. Revenge."

"No, not that one. The one about you not being able to fly."

Cyclonus' fuel pump almost stopped. "Oh. That. You know, it's not that big a deal. I worked it out myself. I'm okay with it now, really." Demolisher didn't even bother to say anything. "Okay, fine! So maybe I'm not. Why do you care?"

"Because we've been keeping each other's skidplates safe for the last few million years, and I guess this is the same minus the laser fire. I got the point last time that you don't exactly like not being able to fly?"

"No," Cyclonus admitted darkly, then added, "Getting Megatron's temper up was probably one of the stupider things I've done in recent memory."

"Megatron probably would have done that anyway," Demolisher said. "He doesn't seem to be the kind of person who likes to reformat for no reason at all."

"Maybe, but I was the one who lost a propeller," Cyclonus grumbled. "Yet another thing in the long list of failures that fill my life."

"What does that mean?" Demolisher asked suddenly, leaning forward slightly.

"What does /what/ mean? ... Oh. Oops." Cyclonus searched his mind for the first evasive answer he could think of. "It's a long story." Good enough.

"I have time," Demolisher said, propping up his head on one hand, then realized he was in poking range again and sat up.

Cyclonus squirmed a little, looking exactly like a kid in the principal's office. "It's not really your business. It's my life."

Demolisher's optics brightened. It was almost as if he'd been waiting for Cyclonus to say that. "May I remind you who recently dug through my life?"

"Oh yeah," Cyclonus said sheepishly, and sighed. "You don't really want to hear."

"Try me," Demolisher said. "I should have told you what the Autobots did to me millions of years ago. Who knows, we might have been able to find a way out of it, if you had been helping me. So now it's your turn to tell me what the slag's wrong with you!"

Cyclonus squirmed again, avoiding Demolisher's gaze. "Like I said, it's a long story."

"Like I said, I've got time! C'mon, Cyclonus. How bad can it be?"

Cyclonus' head snapped up to stare at Demolisher. That was the first time in over a month he'd been called anything but Snowcat. Transformers didn't make slips like that. Names were programmed, and if someone's name changed, everyone else auto-reprogrammed themselves, so they always called each other by the right name. Demolisher had called him Cyclonus on purpose.

"Okay, you win," Cyclonus muttered.

And so, Cyclonus ended up telling Demolisher everything.

...

Demolisher stared at Cyclonus. He had no idea his friend had had so much trouble in his past. He tried to think of something to say.

"... You have issues."

That got a short laugh out of Cyclonus. "And there's more to the story than that. Being sent to so many shrinks I lost count, and even once sent to these five master shrinks. Nobody's ever been sent to them without ending up in their sanitarium." Cyclonus let out another short laugh. "Except me. They couldn't agree what was wrong with me and ended up psychoanalyzing each other. Last I heard, two were in their own hospital and the other three were dead."

Demolisher shook his head in amazement. "Do you realize what you've been doing? Masking insanity with insanity."

"Erm... what?"

"Nothing. I'm just talking to myself..." Demolisher trailed off.

So, the secret was out. Now Demolisher knew how completely messed up Cyclonus was, and could get him sent to a shrink, kicked out of the Decepticon army, anything. He could now see past any mask Cyclonus used. But, somehow, he felt better. At least he wasn't handling this alone anymore.

"Toldja you didn't want to hear all that," Cyclonus said, just to get the conversation started again.

"What makes you say that?" Demolisher asked. "I wanted to hear that. I mean, I didn't know much about your past before that. I was kinda curious."

"It's not like there's anything you can do to help me, though," Cyclonus said quietly. "I've dug myself in too deep."

"No you haven't!" Demolisher said, standing up. "Why the inferno do you think that?"

Cyclonus looked up, puzzled. "Because it's the truth."

Demolisher shook his head. "No way! There's a way out."

"What way?" Cyclonus asked coldly, also standing up, but in reality he was curious.

Demolisher thought. He was getting ahead of himself. He hadn't found a way yet.

"Well?" Cyclonus asked. Energon swirled around his feet, shocking him. He had almost forgotten he was standing in the Energon pool. Cyclonus stepped out. He was almost fully repaired, anyway.

Demolisher made a blind stab at a thought. "Have you ever tried... just forgetting about all that stuff?"

That took Cyclonus by surprise. "Tried /what/?"

An idea slowly started forming in Demolisher's head. "Just letting it go. Most of that stuff happened millions of years ago."

Cyclonus thought about the idea. Yes, that might work. Sometimes, he just wished he could forget about it all. But then...

"No," Cyclonus said, shaking his head. "I can't do that. I'm Cyclonus, I mean, Snowcat the Joke Boy. I can't just stop acting that way, or people really will think I'm crazy."

"So?" Demolisher said. "They already do. Besides, you've just been given the opportunity to change."

Cyclonus' optics flickered in confusion. "I have?"

"You were remade into Snowcat. You have a new body and a new name. You don't have to be who you were. Just pretend the past never happened."

Cyclonus thought. Yes, Demolisher was right. He didn't have to act anymore, did he? He could leave the past in the past. He could be the way he was before he had started acting. He was free.

"Demolisher?" Cyclonus said slowly. "Did I ever tell you I loved you?"

"What?!?" Demolisher yelled, taking a few steps away from Cyclonus.

"I didn't?" Cyclonus asked. "Good. 'Cause I don't. But thanks anyway."

"Um, no problem," Demolisher said.

Cyclonus grinned like a fool under his facemask. Maybe he was a fool. But he was a happy fool. And as far as he was concerned, he always had been one. The past had simply never happened. He hadn't snapped in battle when he joined the Decepticons. He hadn't lied about who he was for the past few million years. He was, and always had been, Snowcat.

"I've gotta go do something. See ya!" Snowcat transformed and raced off. "OW! Stupid rocks! STUPID SNOW VEHICLE!" But he didn't really mean it.

Demolisher watched Snowcat race off. 'Better go tell Megatron that Snowcat... um, Cyclonus... whoever!! Is repaired.' Demolisher went through another tunnel, in search of his leader.

.....

Never to move freely

Until you can accept

That there's more than one way to move

You're freer than you think

Go ahead

Shed your statue

It doesn't hurt

.....

A healthy person is one who has the ability to make himself known to at least one other person significant to him. Only in letting himself be known to another does he really begin to know himself.

((George Henderson, HUMAN RELATIONS; From Theory to Practice, pg. 14))

.....

"Megatron!" Megatron turned around. Demolisher had called him.

"Ah, Demolisher. I assume Snowcat has been repaired?"

"Yes sir!" Demolisher said.

Megatron nodded. "So, physically, he has been mended. How is he mentally?"

Demolisher's optics widened. "What??"

Megatron laughed. "You didn't assume that I don't know what's going on with my own soldiers, did you? I sent you instead of someone else for the express purpose of helping him past his little problems. I suppose you did so?"

"Um, y-yes, sir," Demolisher stammered. "At least, I think so."

Megatron nodded. "Good. What exactly did you tell him?"

Demolisher weighed his options. He could tell Megatron and possibly have Snowcat get annoyed at him, he could not say anything and get scrapped by Megatron for insubordination, or he could lie and get scrapped by Megatron a week later for insubordination. "I told him he should just pretend that stuff never happened and get on with his life."

Megatron nodded thoughtfully. "Fine. Good job Demolisher. I expect a full report on what went on and what Snowcat told you." Megatron could almost feel the horror radiating off of Demolisher.

"Don't look so down, Demolisher," Megatron said smoothly. "Anything you tell me will only be used to help Snowcat. You'd be doing him a favor. And besides, I just gave you a direct order so you don't really have a choice."

"Yessir," Demolisher said unenthusiastically, kicking a small rock out of the way as he walked down the tunnel to get the report started.

'Or at least,' Megatron thought, 'he'd better be getting his report started.'

He headed the other way to his quarters, and almost collided with Snowcat. Megatron jumped out of the way. Ah, this would be a perfect opportunity to see if Demolisher's little remedy worked.

"You repairs are finished, Cyclonus?" Megatron called.

"Yep!" came the reply. "And my name's not Cyclonus, IT'S SNOWCAT!"

Megatron couldn't help smiling in satisfaction. So, Snowcat had let go of his old name. Maybe he'd also let go of any issues he'd had.

Megatron reached his quarters. To anyone else, it looked like a solid wall. Megatron stepped through it as easily as if it had been thin air. And it was. A hologram covered the entrance. It was anyone's guess how Snowcat had found it and gotten in to hang that datapad.

Megatron pulled a datapad out of a niche in the wall to the right of the entrance and turned it on. He crossed the room, sat down in a chair, and started writing.

"Demolisher does seem to have had a positive effect on Snowcat, as I expected. He's let go of whatever past he might have and is back to living in the here-and-now. Unfortunately, Demolisher suggested that Snowcat simply deny his past ever happened. That will work as a short-term solution, but Snowcat won't be able to escape his history forever. Frankly, I'm surprised Demolisher didn't come up with the obvious solution: for Snowcat to simply accept the past. Perhaps Demolisher's a little distracted by something. He's been losing his focus from time to time in battle.

"I can't tell Demolisher what to tell Snowcat, and Snowcat won't listen to me unless something drastic happens. Snowcat will either have to figure out how to solve his problems on his own, or a crisis that involves him must emerge, though I can't imagine what that would be. We'll just have to wait and see what happens.

"I hope Snowcat's problem will clear up quickly, though. I still like the idea of using him as an interrogator..."

.....

Cyclonus/Snowcat's problems are not over yet, no. But he'll be better by the end of the fic, yes. Next chapter is (hopefully) Friday, and please review. I appreciate it, yes...


	6. Ch6: Blind Deaf And Numb

**Edit, 10.2.05:** After watching Super Link, I realized that the upgraded Demolisher, Mirage, and Shockblast were never on Earth. This caused problems. Now they've been fixed. Yay!

Now, on with the chapter.

…..

E-bay is pig Latin for be. Just thought I'd mention that.

The-Crab: I know I already thanked you for putting a link to my fic on your bio, but THANKS AGAIN! And I'm glad you liked when Cy tried to control Unicron. Who doesn't want to be a seeker? ;)

White-Winged Angel: Yes, Snowcat's happy. But for how long? After all, there are still several chapters left… Writer's block is evil, yes. I counteract it by forcing myself to write junk then just revising it until it's good enough to post.

Pivot: Death by Yodeling? I might use that concept in a chapter or two. And is Megs using Cyclonus as an interrogator evil on Cy or evil on everyone else? ((thinks)) Everyone else. Definitely.

Pretty in Scarlet: Yay, I'm on your faves list! Keep working on your Mary-Sue fics!

Shade: Well, here's the next chapter. And don't worry about being too lazy to log in, a lot of times I am too. Less than 10 of my reviews are done logged in. ((eheheh…))

There won't be too much about Cyclonus/Snowcat in this chapter, it'll mostly be focusing on Demolisher. But it's important to the fic, and it's got some of the best descriptions I've ever written, so read! Plus, we finally to see some Autobots. I'm sure some of you will be thrilled but I am not so much. ((runs in circled wearing a Decepticon shirt and holding about twenty Decepticon toys)) CONS FOREVER! DOWN WITH THE BOTS! Not that I'm biased…

Warning: Incredibly long chapter ahead! Over five thousand words and counting! That's over 2000 words longer than my current longest chapter in this fic! Then again, someone requested a longer chapter (I think… that coulda been one of my other fics), so here it is!

Disclaimer: Transformers belong to Hasbro. I own this plot, the poem I have little excerpts from every chapter (no, you haven't heard the whole thing yet!), and the nanobots/nanobot controller. It'll make sense by the end of the chapter.

…..

While you can't move

The one beside you can't breath 

…

Snowcat ducked under a swing from Ironhide and kicked him in the knee, knocking him down. He'd become much better at melee combat in the last few weeks. He stood up and planted a foot on Ironhide's chest then used his cannons to freeze his arms and legs to the ground.

"Hey, what? Lemme up, you Decepticreep!"

"Hmm… NO!" After knocking Ironhide out and making sure he wouldn't be getting up any time soon, Snowcat transformed and drove straight towards the back of Hot Shot's legs, running over one of Ironhide's arms in the process.

Prime was apparently tiring from the continuous battles, for Megatron had him backed into a corner. Megatron risked a glance up, to see how his soldiers were doing. He smirked in satisfaction. Ironhide was down, Hot Shot was about to be – scratch that, Hot Shot was down too, Jetfire and Starscream were fighting above the rest and Jetfire couldn't hit to save his life Starscream, and a heavily damaged Inferno was on top of a pile of rocks, evidently about to shoot at Demolisher, who was looking around for an opponent. Well, maybe Demolisher couldn't see Inferno, but Megatron could.

Prime swung a fist at Megatron's face, catching him off guard. Megatron countered by kicking Prime in the mid section. He stumbled backwards and grabbed the rock wall to stay up.

Megatron was surprised. "That was too easy," he said to himself. A voice in the back of his head told him something was up, but he ignored it. Since when were the Autobots up to anything?

"Demolisher!" Megatron yelled, and when he had his attention, Megatron shot at Inferno, making the Autobots stumble off of his rock pile to avoid the blasts. Demolisher glanced at him, then gave Megatron a half-salute, a dark gleam in his optics. "I'll take care of this one, boss!"

Megatron nodded quickly and turned away from Demolisher. He hated it when his soldiers called him "boss." It wasn't like he had hired any of them.

Megatron's optics widened, and flickered in a blink. His mouth opened a little. Where was Prime? He had only looked away for a second!

Megatron scanned the battlefield, a canyon on a barren planet. They were underneath an overhang that dug deep into the side of the canyon, with absolutely nothing to hold it up. Megatron wondered idly how it had formed this way, as the sides looked artificially carved, but the structure suited his needs. A load of Energon was in the overhang above them, about two hundred feet above their heads. The Terrorcons could dig it out, and then the Decepticons would retreat, taking just enough time to blow up the overhang and crush the Autobots. Of course, the Autobots would probably escape after all, but Megatron could dream.

And Prime wasn't anywhere to be seen.

Megatron clenched his jaw in frustration. Fine, if Prime wanted to play games, he could, but Megatron wouldn't play along. The Terrorcons should be about done; Megatron would check on them to see that they were doing things right.

"Shockblast! Mirage!" Megatron yelled, turing towards the end of the overhang. They were outside, trying to take Kicker down. A waste of time; he was too quick to hit on his silly Minicon hoverboard and too weak to do any real damage. "Leave the human alone and FIND OPTIMUS PRIME!"

"But Megatron – " Shockblast started to protest.

"But nothing!" Megatron snarled. "That's an order! Unless a human is all you can handle?"

Shockblast considered this for less than a second. "Outta my way," he muttered, shoving past Mirage and heading under the overhang, Mirage quickly following him. A bewildered Kicker was left on his hoverboard, still holding the Energon Saber like he was about to hit something with it.

"Pitiful fleshie," Megatron sneered, transforming and flying to the Terrorcons' dig site.

Megatron landed on the edge of the pit, and smirked. Ah yes, the first glimmers of gold were shining through. Such a beautiful sight.

"Pick up the pace!" Megatron ordered. "I want to be out of here as soon as possible." Megatron looked up and saw twenty Divebombs sitting around the edge of the pit, guarding from Autobots.

"What are you doing?" Megatron demanded. "Get down there with the others and DIG!"

The Divebombs glanced at each other a moment, considering the wisdom (or lack thereof) of this order, then glided down into the pit, transformed, and joined the dig.

"That's better," Megatron muttered, smirking, then jumped into the pit himself to monitor the dig more closely.

…

Optimus Prime looked through the narrow (well, narrow for a Transformer) crevice in the wall he had hidden in. He felt a little stupid for hiding, but if this plan was going to work, he couldn't risk being stopped by the Decepticons. Besides, he had died a total of eight times in his life, and was learning that it wasn't a pleasant experience.

Optimus checked on how his soldiers were doing. He winced. Apparently, they weren't doing very well. Inferno had more damaged areas than he had undamaged. Trying to shoot the Decepticons from atop a rock pile hadn't helped him very much. Optimus would have to do this quickly.

He watched Demolisher and Inferno carefully, opening his hand to reveal a small device. He had been holding it the whole battle, shielding it from Megatron's blows. Optimus clicked a button on the top, and it unfolded into a small computer, with a screen and a keyboard of only eleven buttons; the ten regular digits, and an ENTER button. The screen had a single message on it:

N A N O B O T . I M P L A N T . P A T I E N T :

Optimus typed in six digits, 004508, and hit ENTER. The screen flashed a new message:

N A N O B O T . I M P L A N T . P A T I E N T :

0 0 4 5 0 8

S U B J E C T :

D E C E P T I C O N . D E M O L I S H E R

C O N F I R M ?

Optimus hit ENTER again, and a small image of Demolisher appeared on the right side of the screen, with a list of commands on the left.

(1) A C T I V A T E . N A N O B O T S

(2) ATTK . N E R V E S

(3) ATTK . W E A P O N S

(4) ATTK . M O T H E R B O A R D

(5) ATTK . O P T I C A L . N E R V E S

(6) ATTK . A U D I O . R E C E P T O R S

(7) D E A C T I V A T E . N A N O B O T S

(000) S H U T D O W N . P R O C E D U R E

Optimus typed in 1562, and hit ENTER. The picture and all commands except the chosen ones disappeared.

(1) A C T I V A T E . N A N O B O T S

(5) ATTK . O P T I C A L . N E R V E S

(6) ATTK . A U D I O . R E C E P T O R S

(2) ATTK . N E R V E S

C O N F I R M ?

Optimus hit ENTER again.

P R O C E S S I N G . . .

A few seconds later the word disappeared, and the first order was highlighted.

Optimus looked up at Demolisher and Inferno. Inferno was curled up on the ground, and Demolisher was standing over him, holding Inferno's own gun and leveling it at his head. He suddenly froze and took a step back, then looked around wildly, trying to figure out what the heck had just happened. He'd felt a small wave pass through his body, like a static shock. Under his facemask, Optimus smiled grimly. The Nanobots were waking up.

Optimus was watching Demolisher very closely, but if he had been looking at his device he would have noticed the first command disappearing and the second command being highlighted.

Shaking his head to clear the momentary confusion, Demolisher pointed the gun at Inferno again, when his vision went black. He fired and wildly missed Inferno, then dropped the gun and waved his hand in front of his face. He couldn't see it. Suddenly, a flash of blinding colors filled his sight. He shrieked and fell backwards, but the dizzying colors stayed. Demolisher tried to shut his optics off but they wouldn't respond.

Optimus nodded in satisfaction. "The nanobots work better than we thought they would," he muttered, watching Demolisher scrape at his own optics as if he could turn them off that way. Optimus winced. Was that supposed to happen? It looked painful.

The third order was highlighted.

A dull whine entered Demolisher's audio receptor, but he didn't even notice it, still being distracted by the blinding light in his optics. But the whine switched to a shriek, two droning tones in horrible discordance and jumping back and forth between subsonic and sound so high that not even bats could hear it. But Demolisher could.

Blind and deaf to the real world, Demolisher fell backwards until he hit a wall. He felt all the cracks, dents, and bulges in the wall with his hands, trying to ignore the overload of sight and sound. Yes, that was still there. The real world was still there. Somewhere, the Decepticons were still there. Megatron was still there. They could stop whatever this was. They would find him. They were still there. Demolisher could wait this out.

The forth order was highlighted. And all the sudden, nothing was still there anymore.

Demolisher reeled as if from an impact. Every one of his damage alarm nerves had exploded in pain. But worse, he couldn't feel the wall, or the ground under his feet. He wouldn't even be able to feel it if a real shot hit him. Disoriented, Demolisher lost a grip on the wall he wasn't even sure he had and fell on the ground to his side. He couldn't even feel himself fall. He didn't know if he was still falling, or if he had fallen at all. Not even able to hear it himself, Demolisher let out an anguished shriek.

Optimus watched Demolisher for a moment in horror. No one had known how the nanobots would work when the Omnicons had developed them and implanted them into the Decepticons during the ten-year interlude between wars. This had been the first test run, and apparently they worked very well. Optimus shuddered as Demolisher let out another shriek. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Optimus realized with a jolt that he couldn't leave Demolisher like that, picked up the nanobot controller, and typed in 7, ENTER, and then clicked ENTER again before the confirmation request had even finished appearing on the screen.

P R O C E S S I N G…

The controller finished sending the message to the nanobots. The single order was highlighted, then disappeared just as quickly. The nanobots in Demolisher's body returned to their storage containers built in the very marrow of Demolisher's mainframe.

Demolisher's damage alarms went numb, everything went silent, and the world went black again. For an instant Demolisher was relieved, then he panicked. He was stuck in a void of nothingness. A second ago, at least the colors, the sound, and the pain had been real. Here, nothing was. But, slowly Demolisher could feel the ground pressed against his side, hear the noises of the battle, and see the stone walls of the canyon overhang.

'I'm alive! Whatever the slag that was, I survived it!' Demolisher thought, sitting up and choking back a sob. That had been a taste of pure hell.

Remembering his duty as a Decepticon warrior, Demolisher scanned the cave to see what the condition was of the others. All of them were there, and real… oh so very real… Demolisher shook his head and actually focused this time. Ironhide was down, Hot Shot was firing up at Snowcat, with Snowcat standing on his chest, dodging shots and firing up at Jetfire at the same time. Jetfire and Starscream were still fighting, though Jetfire was slowing down. Inferno had retrieved his gun and was trying to sit up, staring at Demolisher like he was crazy. And he probably was. Demolisher had no idea what he'd done when that… that spasm had hit him. As far as he knew, he might have started singing in Romanian.

'Do I even know Romanian?' Demolisher thought, and then wondered, 'When did I learn what Romania is?'

Shockblast and Mirage had just come in and were looking around like they were trying to find something, and Prime was standing there and just staring… right at him!

Demolisher shivered. Why was Prime looking at him like that? And what was that in his…

"Oh, no," Demolisher whispered. He recognized that from when he had been slave. The nanobot controller.

Prime saw Demolisher looking at him, and made a motion with his head. It was a motion for Demolisher to come over, since Prime couldn't mouth it and he couldn't exactly walk onto a battlefield and ask for a conversation.

But Demolisher didn't take it like the innocent gesture it truly was. Anger rushed through him. Oh, how many times he'd seen Prime do that in the ten years he spent in Ocean City, when Prime was on one side of the room and Demolisher was on the other. Come, slave. Do your master's bidding. Demolisher clenched his fists and stood up, glaring at Prime.

Optimus took an involuntary step back when he saw the look on Demolisher's face. He couldn't remember getting that kind of a look from even Megatron… Oh, wait, yes he could. In any case, Optimus glanced down at the Nanobot controller, to make sure he could use it quickly if Demolisher tried anything.

Demolisher noticed Prime's glance. The anger leaked out of Demolisher and fear filled its place. No, he would not let himself go back in there. He had to, as much as he hated it, go to Prime.

'Yes, that's right, even though you're free I am still your master.' Demolisher shook his head to get the imagined voice out of his head. Prime had never actually said that. Prime wasn't the type that _would_ say that, even if he could. But Demolisher could sure _imagine_ him saying that…

"What do you want?" Demolisher hissed. "I'm free now and you know it. You are not my master."

"Master?" Prime repeated, sounding genuinely surprised. "You make it sound like I forced you into signing that contract!"

"You did!" Demolisher growled, carefully keeping a seeker jet's length between himself and the Autobot leader.

Prime narrowed his optics. "It was your own decision to sign it. It's not my fault you – "

"You still haven't answered my question. What do you WANT!" Demolisher snarled.

Prime's grip on the nanobot controller tightened instinctively. Demolisher seemed angrier about this than Prime had expected him to be. Then again, he had no idea what the Nanobots had done to him. "I want you to switch back to the Autobots," he said, hoping he wasn't about to become scrap metal. Since Demolisher had gotten his new body, he'd been a little… crazy.

"NEVER!" Demolisher lunged forward, fists flying.

Jumping back so hard his back slammed into the canyon wall, Optimus quickly typed 1, hit ENTER repeatedly, and braced himself. Demolisher wasn't supposed to react like this. What had Megatron done to his programming?

Demolisher let out a strangled yelp, optics widening. He froze in mid-lunge and fell backwards a few steps as the nanobots entered his fuel lines. But after the lurching inside that signified the nanobots' activation, nothing happened.

Optimus had been panicked for a second as Demolisher jumped, but he tried not to let it show. He typed in 5 6 2 ENTER, and said as calmly as he could manage, "I'm at the confirmation screen right now. All I have to do is push a button and the nanobots will activate."

Demolisher clenched his hands into fists and considered his options. Could he grab the controller from Prime fast enough to keep him from activating the nanobots? No. And it was Demolisher himself who wanted to stay a slaggin' jet's length away.

"Demolisher, why are you just standing over there?" Snowcat called. "If you're not doing anything, I could use some help on Jetfire!"

Demolisher was instantly filled with relief. Snowcat couldn't see Prime from where he was standing, but that meant Prime couldn't see Snowcat. If Demolisher could turn on his comlink, contact Snowcat, and talk quietly enough, he could get him to come over…

Prime had apparently gained the ability to read minds. "Don't bother trying to contact any other Decepticons. I can activate this before they get here."

"I don't care what you call that contract, THIS is slavery!" Demolisher said accusingly. "And you can't deny that!"

Optimus squirmed inwardly. Demolisher was right. How had the Omnicons convinced him to do this? "It's a tactical advantage," Optimus said, repeating the lines the Omnicons had given him. Sometimes, he really hated his job. "And the nanobots will help when the war's over. If a criminal is arrested, we could implant these and let them live freely, but they wouldn't be able to commit any more crime unless they wanted the nanobots to activate."

"How is it that you can manage to sound like a typical goody-goody Help The Universe Autobot _and_ like Megatron talking to a prisoner at the same time?" Demolisher muttered angrily, and quickly shut his mouth. Prime's finger was still hovering dangerously over the ENTER button.

"There he is!" a voice shouted. Demolisher and Prime turned to look towards the sound of the voice. Silhouetted by the sunlight out in the canyon, Shockblast and Mirage stood with all their weapons trained on Optimus Prime. It was the most beautiful thing Demolisher had ever seen.

"Even if Shockblast and Mirage fire right now, I can activate the nanobots before their projectiles hit me," Prime reminded Demolisher. "And if I do and they knock me out, there will be no one to turn the nanobots off." Suddenly the sight of his comrades wasn't nearly as beautiful as it had been.

Prime made another slight gesture with his head. 'Be a good little slave and kill them. Master says.' Demolisher shook his head to clear the thoughts. Prime didn't say that. He mean it, but…

Demolisher couldn't do it. He turned his optics off and back on, hoping Shockblast and Mirage were gone so he wouldn't have to do this. They weren't. In fact, they were much closer and getting closer by the second. Demolisher made a decision.

'Look on the bright side,' he thought. 'You've been wanting to do this to Shockblast since you met him.'

Demolisher turned on his grenade launcher, felt it click into place, and fired at his fellow Decepticons. He looked away when they hit, but only for an instant. That wouldn't be enough. Much as he hated it, he would actually have to fight them.

Demolisher charged forward and punched Mirage in the stomach, then hit his head, putting him into stasis almost instantly. Mirage hadn't been expecting an attack from his comrade. He then turned towards Shockblast.

"Demolisher? What the slag do you think you're doing!" Shockblast yelled, completely forgetting about Prime and turning to look at Demolisher.

Demolisher didn't answer, instead ramming Shockblast with his shoulder, knocking him over. He put one foot on Shockblast's chest, as he had seen Snowcat do earlier.

"Tell Megatron I'm sorry. It's not my fault," Demolisher said quietly.

"Tell MEGATRON you're sorry! Hey, what about apologizing to me! You just…" The rest of Shockblast's complaint was cut off when Demolisher kicked him in the head with his other foot, just hard enough to put him in stasis.

"Good job, Demolisher," Optimus said shakily. He couldn't believe that actually worked. "You'll make a good Autobot, someday."

Prime was talking to Demolisher like he did to all his other precious Autobot soldiers. Demolisher wanted to turn around, right then and there, and beat Prime's slagging head in, and he didn't care if he went blind, deaf, and numb at the same time because of it. Instead, he just hissed, so Prime couldn't hear, "But I don't _want_ to be an Autobot."

Optimus decided to push his luck. "Now, go get the other two."

Demolisher's optics widened. "No way! Not Snowcat! I'll shoot at Starscream, but not Snowcat!" Demolisher quickly shut his vocalizer. Friendship was a weakness, and he had just shown one to Prime.

Demolisher was afraid for a second that Prime would activate the nanobots because of the outburst, but after a short pause Prime simply nodded. "Alright then. I'll take Snowcat." Demolisher regretted speaking up. Which was worse, Demolisher himself beating up Snowcat, or getting him beaten up by Optimus Prime instead? What if he'd been able to warn Snowcat? He could've told him to pretend to be unconscious, then jump up and distract Prime long enough for Demolisher to get the controller. But it was too late now.

Prime watched Demolisher. He was waiting for him to make the first move. Demolisher mentally said a quick prayer to whatever god was rooting for the Decepticons, and attacked.

…

"Hey Demolisher! 'Bout time you made it over here! What were you doing?" Snowcat asked cheerfully. Demolisher didn't answer, just started launching grenades. Snowcat shrugged and started firing at Jetfire too. Snowcat was surprised he was still up there, after all that time. No matter, with Demolisher helping he wouldn't be up there long…

Snowcat realized every grenade Demolisher had fired so far had missed. It was almost like he was missing on purpose. In fact, now that Snowcat was looking, it was almost exactly like…

"Demolisher?" Snowcat asked. "Are you firing at Starsc – GAH!" Snowcat was hit hard in the back and knocked off of Hot Shot and onto the ground. Groaning, Snowcat rolled onto his side and looked up at Prime, who was now helping Hot Shot up. "Awww maaan."

Hot Shot smiled. And you know that friendly, warm, Autobot-ish way he can smile? This wasn't one of those smiles. "You said it." The next thing Snowcat saw was the barrel of Hot Shot's gun.

"HEY!" Snowcat yelled, scrambling to his feet, and stumbling back a few steps. He heard a thud and turned to look at it. Oh, Starscream was down.

"Megatron?" Snowcat yelled into his comlink. "We have a situation here!"

…

The Terrorcons had almost finished with the Energon. What a time for things to go bad. And Megatron had known Prime was going to be up to something. Megatron shut his optics of and counted to ten. "What is it, Snowcat?"

"Well, Optimus and Hot Shot are ganging up on me, Starscream is down, I don't know where Mirage or – OOF! What did I just trip over? Oh, there they are. Mirage and Shockblast are down, too. And Demolisher is… um… traumatized, I guess. He's staring at Starscream. My point is GET DOWN HERE AND KICK SOME AUTO-BUTT! Erm… please, boss?"

Counting to ten would not be good enough today. Megatron decided to count to twenty. When he was done he ordered all the Terrorcons to go under the overhang. If that didn't help he didn't know what would.

…

"Terrorcons!" Kicker yelled, gliding towards the group on his hoverboard. Optimus jerked up to looked out the entrance hoping this was one of those premonitions that'd come true in about twenty minutes. But sure enough, a pack of Terrorcons were right on Kicker's tail. Prime glanced at Demolisher, and Demolisher quickly shook his head. No, he hadn't called them.

Prime quickly realized that the Terrorcons were swarming in their only exit, which left only one option. "Autobots, retreat!" he yelled, waited until he'd seen Inferno, Hot Shot, Jetfire and Kicker warp back to the Miranda II, then left himself, holding Demolisher's shoulder so he would come with him. Megatron got there a moment later.

"Snowcat! Where are the Autobots?" Megatron asked, looking around to make sure they were really gone. Snowcat shrugged helplessly.

"They… they just… left," he stuttered, staring in another direction. Megatron looked over. There was nothing there.

"Snowcat, what is it?" he demanded, hoping it wasn't Snowcat's old depression problem back with a vengeance. He had enough problems right now without having to deal with his soldier's little issues. Snowcat didn't answer.

Megatron growled in frustration and turned to see how his soldiers were doing. He saw Starscream down, he was beat up pretty bad… Shockblast and Mirage were over there in stasis, at least they weren't beat up too bad… there was Snowcat… Something was missing.

"Where's Demolisher?" Megatron asked. Snowcat jerked out of his stupor and turned towards Megatron.

"Demolisher is…" Snowcat trailed off, then forced himself to start again. "Demolisher… left. With the Autobots. Prime took 'em."

Megatron didn't believe it. "Say that again," he ordered. Snowcat said it again. Megatron didn't like it any better the second time.

Luckily, Snowcat ducked.

…

"So, the question now is why Demolisher went with them…" Megatron mused. It was about an hour later. Megatron had blown off steam shooting at the various and assorted rocks, causing Snowcat to hide on the other side of the canyon. Shockblast had come out of stasis, explained (or rather, whined about) what had happened to him, and relucantly told Megatron what Demolisher had said. Knowing that somehow Demolisher had been forced to go with the Autobots had made Snowcat feel better, but not by much. "He's not brave enough to be a traitor," Megatron continued, ignoring Snowcat's sudden stiffening at the suggestion that Demolisher would be a traitor in any case. "But we still have to find out why he went with the Autobots if we want to find out how to get him back on our side."

"I say let him go," Shockblast said coldly. "If he really wanted to be on our side, he wouldn't have gone with them in the first place."

Snowcat's head jerked up. He gaped at Shockblast for a second then yelled, "TAKE THAT BACK, you CREEP!" and lunged at Shockblast.

"What the-- " Shockblast yelled, but was cut off when Snowcat grabbed his head and shoved him to the ground.

"TAKE IT BACK YOURSELF OR I'LL SHOVE IT BACK IN YOU!" Snowcat screamed, bringing back a fist.

"Snowcat!" Megatron yelled, throwing the enraged Decepticon off of Shockblast with one hand, and kicking Shockblast back from tearing Snowcat apart with the other. Evidently, Snowcat did have some suppressed depression, if he was lashing out at others with that kind of fury. Then again, Shockblast had that effect on everyone. "We're not going to leave Demolisher in the hands of Optimus Prime. One way or another, he's coming back. But there's no point in staying on this rock. The Terrorcons have gotten all the Energon we need. We 're pulling back to Unicron." Megatron glanced up at the sky worriedly. Not that anyone else could tell he was worried. 'Besides,' he thought, 'this planet is close to Cybertron. It will only be a matter of time before the Autobots come back to build an Energon grid over it, too."

"Fine. But _I'm_ not hauling them back to Unicron!" Shockblast muttered, gesturing towards Mirage and Starscream.

Sullenly, Snowcat prepared to warp back to Unicron, when he heard a groan from somewhere back under the overhang. He tensed up, and when it didn't get any louder, he ran back under to inspect it.

"Lookit that!" he yelled. "Boss, get over here!"

"What is it?" Megatron asked, going to where he heard Snowcat's voice. He found him standing over… someone. He was almost completely covered in ice, but Megatron thought he recognized whoever it was…

"Um… heheh… hi?" Ironhide said nervously, who had just woke up from when Snowcat had knocked him out.

Megatron smirked. "I see we have a prisoner." He kicked the ice several times, making it shatter. "Snowcat, see to it that he doesn't escape, would you?"

"No problem," Snowcat said, aiming his two cannons at Ironhide. Unfortunately, Ironhide's weapons were still frozen over. Poor guy.

Ironhide stood up slowly. "I don't have to put my hands over my head, do I?" he asked, trying to sound cocky and failing miserably.

"Only if you want to," Snowcat said cheerfully.

"Now that that's taken care of, let's get out of here," Megatron said. "Retreat!" He warped back to Unicron, expecting the others to follow. Snowcat warped out a second later.

Shockblast looked from Ironhide to Starscream and Mirage, and back again. "You carry 'em."

…

"Snowcat? I need to have a word with you," Megatron said.

"But I'm guarding Ironhide!" Snowcat said.

Megatron glanced at Ironhide. He was currently secured to the wall by about a thousand cables, and couldn't so much as turn his head. "He'll be here when we're done."

Snowcat shrugged and followed Megatron around a corner, where Ironhide couldn't hear them. "So what is it?"

"I have an idea that might help us get Demolisher back. But to work, I'll need your assistance."

"Um…" Snowcat shrugged again, wondering what he could possibly do. When Megatron didn't outright order you to do something, you knew it probably wouldn't be good. "Tell me what it is first."

Megatron smirked. Snowcat was smarter than Cyclonus had ever been, even though he was the same Transformer. Cyclonus wouldn't have thought to ask what he was about to promise to do. A simple change in attitude could change so much about someone.

"It's simple. That Autobot," Megatron gestured to Ironhide around the corner, "most likely knows whatever Prime's done to get Demolisher to work for the Autobots. All you need to do is interrogate him and find out what it is."

"Uh, sure, no prob," Snowcat said, surprised. He hadn't expected that. "But, I don't know how to do interrogations."

Megatron smiled coldly. "Oh, what I want you to do is easy. Just… talk to him. Stay in a room with him, alone, for a week or two." When Snowcat still gave him a confused look (the only Transformer alive would could do it through a face-mask) Megatron rolled his optics and just barely restrained himself from decking Snowcat. "Confuse him! Make him question reality, and eventually break him. Make him accept whatever twisted version of reality you show him, and then when I offer to send him back to the reality he prefers, in exchange for anything we want to know…" Megatron let the sentence hang.

Snowcat shifted from one foot to the other, uncomfortable. He thought he was beginning to catch on to what Megatron wanted to do, but he hoped he wasn't. 'Please,' he thought, 'don't do this to me! I'm trying to forget that junk!'

"That mind-twisting stuff sounds like something you'd do. Not me. I mean, you weirded Starscream up, right? Maybe you should handle that."

Megatron laughed quietly. Snowcat decided he didn't like that laugh. "Yes, I do know how minds work. But there's only one Transformer who was able to send five master psychologists to their own sanitarium."

Snowcat wondered if there was a chance he could get out of this. He could still just refuse to do it, play dumb, and say he had no idea what Megatron was talking about. He had been forcing himself to forget his past for about a month now. So far so good, until this came up.

But… if he was the only one that could help Demolisher…

"Actually, only two of 'em went to the sanitarium. The other three killed themselves." Snowcat set his jaw. He could do this for Demolisher. He'd probably come out of it worse than Ironhide, though. "So, when do I get my hands on this Autobot?"

…..

So, that's chapter six! The next chapter, we get to see Cyclonus/Snowcat's interrogation attempt.

Next week, school starts, so updates will be coming slower. I'll say next update will be Friday at the latest.


	7. Ch7: The One Who Shatters The Statue

It seems some of my audience has some mixed emotions about how I portrayed Prime last chapter. Well, about 70 of that was Demolisher's over-active imagination, interpreting body language in ways he shouldn't (I guess I didn't exactly make that clear) and about 30 of that was my personal dislike of most Autobots, Optimus Prime included. What can I say? I'm a Con fan. I'll try to keep personal opinions out of this from now on, though.

Pretty in Scarlet: Yay! Go work on your fic! I like it. Glad you like this.

WhiteNightDragon: Thank you!

Seeker Nami: You're still up for Autobot killing? GREAT! I say we take out all the Omnicons, then tie up most of the others Bots and poke 'em with sticks. Long POINTY sticks! Ironhide will be spared. After all, I'm gonna torture him enough in this fic, poor guy. I have a thing for torturing my fave characters in fics… Dunno why. And YES! Cyclonus has to have a PROPELLER! This whole fic was actually spawned from my annoyance that Cyclonus turned into a dude with skis and no face. That, and my plotbunny when I heard that fliers can't not fly… Yes, that was supposed to be a double negative. Try to figure it out.

Haley Macrae: Actually, I do like Ironhide. He was, quite literally, in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was about halfway through chapter six before I remembered I needed an Autobot to be captured for Cy/Snow to interrogate, and then I remembered I had frozen/knocked out Ironhide in the first paragraph and… well… poor Ironhide. He's cool.

Goldenrod: Erm, yeah. 70 Demolisher, 30 me. Eheheh… And Prime didn't endanger Demolisher's life on purpose. The Energon shield was gonna fry Megatron but Demolisher shoved him out of the way. It was completely accidental. Hey, I'm trying to juggle between the canon series and a completely ridiculous fanfic. Expect strange explanations to pop up! And, about the dirty tricks the Autobots use in my fic, the way I see it, if the Autobots are really as goody-goody as they are in the show, then there's no way they survived as long as they did in the war. I don't think the series is showing us everything. They've gotta resort to dirty tricks, now and then, or the Cons would cream them. They like peace and all, of course, but warfare is warfare.

GothMasterFlash: He didn't forget about it, he's just trying to force himself not to remember. Denial. "Evil Demented Optimus"? ((cackles)) I like that name. Like I said, he was 70 Demolisher, 30 me. IT'S HIS FAULT! Actually, I guess it was all me since I didn't really explain that most of that was in Demolisher's head… Ah well. Glad you like despite my complete lack of ability to do characters right.

White-Winged Angel: Snowcat's gonna pretty much terrorize Ironhide. He's not going to systematically tear his body parts off, but basically, he's going to systematically tear his sanity off. HeeheeheehahahahaHAHAHAHA! BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA! What?

Okay, so, there's the reviews, and I'll try to make Prime a little nicer this chapter, 'kay? And thankee for the constructive criticism, I now know what NOT to do on fics.

And don't be freaked out by Cyclonus/Snowcat's frequent name-swapping. It shows changes in mentality. Yes, he's back to being called Cyclonus this chapter. Don't ask.

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, or the various quotes from the Marx Brothers movies. If you've ever seen any of them, trust me, you'd be fighting to keep Cyclonus from spouting Marx quotes too.

…..

Ice creeps down your back

But Statues can't feel cold

…

"GAAH!" Ironhide yelled, falling to the ground. He sat up, rubbing the arm he had landed on as the wall behind him sealed. Just a few moments ago, he had been let out of the wall, had his guns ripped off by tentacles, and then been carried down to this room by those tentacles. And now he'd been tossed in, and the door had sealed behind him.

"Man, this place is creepy," he muttered, poking the wall he had come through. Solid rock. He shivered. "Decepticons must've all escaped from mad houses."

…

"I can't believe I'm doing this," Snowcat muttered, standing outside the hologram wall that would let him into the room where Ironhide was waiting. He had spent his whole time in the Decepticon army pretending to be a psycho. And he had finally gotten out of that, and tried to act normal for once, and he was at least partially happy for the first time in millions of years. But now he had to go back to being a psycho? "I really can't believe it."

He had almost changed his mind earlier. He smirked. That had gone well. In the end Megatron had ordered him to go try to mess Ironhide up, with the threat of feeding him to Unicron alive. Either Megatron really wanted Demolisher back with the Decepticons, or… well… something else, but he didn't really think that Megatron cared about Demolisher all that much. So it must've been that something else.

But even if he didn't want to, he had to do this. If Megatron thought Snowcat was the only one that could do anything that could help Demolisher, then he'd have to try, right?

Snowcat locked his jaw. _'C'mon Snow, you can do it,'_ he thought. _'C'mon… Cyclonus.'_ Cyclonus and Snowcat were almost completely different entities, by now. Cyclonus was the psycho with all the secrets. Snowcat was the sane one with nothing to hide. For this, he needed to be a psycho. He needed to know how to break someone. He'd have to be Cyclonus.

Snowcat could almost feel his mind subtlely alter at this reluctant acceptance. He wondered for a moment if he had suppressed memories. Or maybe he had alternate personalities. That could be fun.

"Hey, Cyclonus, how're you?" he asked softly. "Oh, I'm fine. How 'bout you, Snow? Eh, 'bout the same. Think you can handle this job for me, Cy?"

Cyclonus thought a second. "I hope so." He couldn't put this off much longer. Cyclonus knew he was unstable—heck, maybe he really did have alternate personalities, by now— and didn't want to think about what would happen to him if he wasn't ready. Or what would happen to Demolisher. But now was no time for second-guessing. Bracing himself, Cyclonus jumped through the hologram wall and landed fifty feet below, right behind Ironhide. Cyclonus looked up at the hologram wall he had just jumped through, over twenty feet above his head, as it shimmered back to normality. He couldn't fly anymore, so there was no way to reach it. There was no turning back now, so he'd better do this right.

Ironhide spun around as he heard Cyclonus land. "Hey! What are you doing here? And how'd you get in?"

Cyclonus opened his mouth, then realized he hadn't really planned anything to say. If he was supposed to drive Ironhide crazy, then he had to say something crazy, right? _'Come on, Cy, THINK! You're supposed to be GOOD at saying strange things!'_

'_But that was before I was Snowcat and tried to forget how to do that,'_ Cyclonus reminded his inner-monologue. He was having a conversation with his head-voices. Or alternate personalities. Yeesh.

'Okay, fine, so plagerize something! You remember watching the Marx Brothers movies when you were at Lunar City, right? Do something from that!' 

"Viaduct!" Cyclonus declared. _'Viaduct?'_

"What?" Ironhide said, perplexed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I… came in through the viaduct?" Cyclonus winced. _That_, was a question. _That_, was not supposed to be a question.

Ironhide was starting to think the whole exchange was stupid. "Viaduct," he repeated dully, wondering just what the Decepticon wanted. Or if he was just trying to be annoying.

Cyclonus was losing his audience. If he just sounded stupid, there was no way he'd be able to get anything out of Ironhide. _'Your name's Cyclonus. Do something CYCLONUSY!'_

'_Or steal more Marx.'_

"Yes, I did. But I don't get why a duck."

"Huh?" It seemed Cyclonus had just gotten Ironhide's attention again. Stupid random comments seemed to work.

"I can understand why a horse, why a road, even why a fence! But not why a duck!" Cyclonus raved, pacing the room.

Comprehension dawned on Ironhide's face. "Oh, I get it. Viaduct, why-a-duck. Heh."

Ironhide was starting to figure Cyclonus out. Time to switch tactics. "YOU!" Cyclonus leaned into Ironhide's face. "Autobot! Do YOU know why a duck?" Cyclonus kept staring into Ironhide's optics, leaning over him.

"Um, I, uh… Because?" Ironhide stuttered. Cyclonus had shaken him up. Good.

"Because…" Cyclonus repeated thoughtfully, waited a few seconds, then launched into hiss next rant. "Well that covers a lot of area. In fact, you cover a lot of area too, if I do say so myself. You might wanna move, I hear they're going to tear you down to build an office building."

"… What?" Ironhide said, leaning quite noticeably away from Cyclonus. Cyclonus smirked, and continued. "Yeah, you should leave in a taxi before they get here. If you can't get a taxi you can leave in a huff. If that's too short for you, you can leave in a minute and a huff."

"But what's a--" Ironhide started, but was cut off.

"You know, you haven't stopped talking since I got here. You must've been immunized with a phonograph needle." Cyclonus finished his rant, and calmly watched Ironhide, as if he hadn't said a word since he'd got there.

Ironhide opened and closed his mouth a few times, and finally managed to say, "What are you talking about?"

"What do you mean, what am I talking about?" Cyclonus said crossly. "I haven't said anything since I got here, except when I told you that you haven't stopped talking once. Really, it's quite annoying when someone talks so much."

"But-- but you were just talking to me about taxis and viaducts and… um, ducks."

"A duck? Why a duck?" Cyclonus asked, and then slowly shook his head, like he pitied Ironhide. "You poor guy. Next you're going to be saying you were carried here by giant sentient tentacles that came from nowhere, when we both know very well that Shockblast hauled you down here."

"But I WAS carried down here… by…" Ironhide realized how completely crazy he sounded. "… by Shockblast." Cyclonus was making a lot more sense than he was. Maybe he was right. No, he COULDN'T be! Ironhide knew what he knew. And he was not carried down here by Shockblast. Or was he? Ironhide sat down and looked at the ground, trying to figure out what was going on.

Cyclonus grinned. He'd forgotten how much fun it could be to try to make someone snap. Though the circumstances themselves weren't usually that fun, being sent to shrinks, or locked in a cell with a guard for getting a little too weird…

'_Stop that,'_ he told himself. He didn't want to remember the past. He was just doing this to help Demolisher. That was all. He was helping Demolisher.

…

"I still don't think we should trust him," Hot Shot said, glaring down at Demolisher. Demolisher was a floor below Hot Shot and Jetfire, leaning sullenly against the wall, waiting for somebody to make him do something. He was not a happy camper.

He hadn't been happy on the flight back to Ocean City, either. The Autobots were hoping that the fact that they had a prisoner (or a turncoat?) would make Megatron wary about attacking anytime soon. Besides, now that they knew where Megatron was, they didn't need the Miranda II to search for him. All they'd have to do was use a warpgate to reach him.

"Optimus said we should trust him," Jetfire said, sighing. He didn't like this any more than Hot Shot. "If Optimus says so, that's that. He wouldn't make a mistake about who he could trust."

"Oh yeah? Remember Starscream?" Hot Shot muttered, then sighed. "I… I trust Optimus. But that doesn't mean I have to trust _him_." Hot Shot nodded at Demolisher.

Demolisher looked up at Hot Shot and Jetfire. They jerked away from the railing and turned away. "It's alright," Demolisher yelled up at them. "I knew you were talking about me. Feel free to carry on." Annoyed, Demolisher looked down again, crossing his arms.

Demolisher heard footsteps approaching. He refused to look up from the ground. If whoever it was wanted to talk to him, then they would.

"Demolisher," a voice said. Demolisher swore quietly and looked up at Optimus Prime.

"Can I help you?" Demolisher said dully, uncrossing one arm to mock-salute his new "leader."

"I just wanted to talk," Prime said. "I know you're not exactly here by choice," Demolisher gave Prime a 'no-duh' look, "but I think that if you give us half a chance you could learn to like being an Autobot."

Demolisher crossed his arms even tighter. "Well maybe I wouldn't," he said, sounding remarkably like Kicker on a bad day.

Prime sighed. Demolisher had always wondered why Autobots did that. It served no real purpose. They'd all spent too much time hanging out with humans…

"Demolisher, I know I haven't been the nicest I could have been in the past. I'm not proud of a lot of things I've done, and I'm sorry." Prime stuck out his hand. "So, what if we start over? I'll forgive you for anything you've done if you can forgive me."

Demolisher looked from Prime's outstretched hand to his face. His expression hardened. "YOU made ME a slave of your army. YOU filled ME with those stupid nanobots. YOU destroyed MY body with that Energon shield. All I did was MY job, which happens to be fighting YOU. What do I have to apologize for?"

Prime slowly lowered his hand. "Demolisher…"

Demolisher shot Prime a dark glare and stood up. There are many, many Transformers that can shoot lasers out of their optics. It has proven to be a tactical advantage many times, but can also be very annoying if one of these Transformers with laser optics is intently watching the newest episode of their favorite show, and are concentrating so hard on watching that when the episode is just about to reach the best part the Transformer is so excited its laser optics go off and blow up the screen. But whether laser optics are a blessing or a curse, Optimus Prime is very lucky that Demolisher didn't have them or he'd be a melted puddle on the floor.

"You Autobots are all into honesty and stuff, right?" Demolisher said with forced calmness. "Well, I HONESTLY think that YOU'RE just a STUPID…" ((**The rest of this paragraph has been censored due to Demolisher's… erm… extended vocabulary. Rest assured, it was a violent, inane, and generally crude and insulting rant that would have done Cyclonus proud.**))

"… AND I HOPE you were taking notes, 'cause THAT'S gonna be on the SLAGGIN' TEST! HAH!" Demolisher stalked off, leaving a stunned Optimus Prime behind, wondering where the nearest empty room was. After a speech like that, he wanted to be alone, in case a few of his words warranted a nanobot attack. He wouldn't want any Autobots to catch him twitching on the floor.

Prime watched Demolisher go, and sighed. He had every right to be angry. But, there was still a war going on. And sometimes in war, you had to do things you didn't want to do. Especially if you happened to be commander of an army.

"We could zap 'im if you want," Strongarm said, walking up to Prime and holding a nanobot controller like it was a live hand grenade. Evidently, Strongarm wasn't too keen on actually using it.

"Thanks, but I don't think we need to go that far," Prime said, and chuckled when Strongarm eagerly dropped the controller and hastily kicked it several yards away.

"I'll get it later," he said casually, like he kicked controllers to dangerous microscopic weapons around on a regular basis. "So, what should we do about Demolisher?"

Prime glanced at the hallway Demolisher had just gone down. "I guess we give him time to adjust."

"No chance we're gonna just let 'im go, then?" Strongarm asked, smiling sadly. He did not like living with an ex-Decepticon.

"No," Prime said regretfully. "With Demolisher's help, we could win this war once and for all. He knows more about the Decepticons than all of us do combined. If we could win this, wouldn't it be worth having him captive for awhile?"

"Yeah, I guess," Strongarm muttered. "But I think you're worried about 'im bein' kept here, and what I'm more worried about is him bein' here at all. What if he leads us into a trap?"

Prime glanced down at the nanobot controller, and back up at Strongarm. He understood. If Demolisher was too much of a problem, they'd have to use Command 000. Prime hoped it wouldn't come to that.

…

"Wow. That was impressive," Jetfire muttered, who actually _had_ taken notes on Demolisher's rant. Hey, if it meant he'd get a few good phrases…

"What were they talking about?" Hot Shot said. "They said something about 'zapping' him… What's that supposed to mean?"

"I dunno," Jetfire said, stuffing his datapad into his subspace pocket, "but it looks like Optimus doesn't trusts Demolisher much either."

Hot Shot nodded. "And Demolisher doesn't trust us." So, they had been right to be worried about Demolisher. And yet, Optimus still let Demolisher stay at Ocean City, the base of Autobot operations. There was that whole thing about "zapping," too. They had some was of keeping Demolisher from turning on them. "It sounds like they have some kind of control over Demolisher, and they don't think he'll be able to get away, even if they don't trust him…" Hot Shot said. "Do you know what this means?"

Jetfire nodded. "It's our unofficial job to make sure he isn't sending information to the Decepticons."

They sighed.

…

Ironhide was in recharge, and apparently not having a very restful nap. Every few minutes he turned over and muttered something. Usually something about ducks.

It takes a lot to make a Transformer talk in recharge. They have to be either very very happy, or very very disturbed. Three guesses as to which Ironhide was. Cyclonus was doing a good job.

But Cyclonus wasn't celebrating. He was having troubles of his own.

Cyclonus sat on the other side of the room, leaning against the wall and tossing a pebble up and down with one hand. He needed something to do. He was as trapped in the room as Ironhide, and as long as Ironhide was in recharge he couldn't do anything. How did he get himself into these messes?

On the other side of the room, Ironhide rolled over and mumbled something about rabid ducks in taxis. Oh yeah. That was how. Ironhide had got him in this mess. Cyclonus threw his pebble at Ironhide and turned so he leaned on his side against the wall, glaring into a corner.

He was wearing a mask again, pretending to be someone he wasn't. He had dome it for millions of years, but now that he'd had a taste of freedom, he couldn't go back. He was still trying to forget his past. If he could pretend it never happened, he could almost live a normal life. But it looked like any chance of that had just been shot to the pit, thanks to Ironhide.

Cyclonus threw another, slightly bigger rock at Ironhide. It hit him in the face. Ironhide turned his optics on half-power. "What?" he mumbled, not quite fully conscious.

"Nothing. It was just the Autobot rescue party," Cyclonus told Ironhide, jumping on an opportunity to occupy his mind.

Ironhide sat up, optics still only half on. "Did they come to get me?"

"No, they came for Alpha-Q, so we sent them in the right direction. They paid us with about five million Minicon panels."

"Minicon whatsits?" Ironhide mumbled, his optics dimming. He was in recharge again before he hit the ground.

Cyclonus chuckled. He'd forgotten. Ironhide didn't know anything about Minicon panels. The only Minicons he knew were the ones that made Perceptor and the Energon Saber Minicons. Cyclonus knew a lot more about most things than Ironhide did.

'_Lucky guy,'_ Cyclonus thought bitterly. The less you knew, the better. Ironhide didn't have any real problems. Well, except for being stuck in a room with Cyclonus, that is. A Cyclonus that was currently annoyed at Ironhide and had orders to be in psycho-mode.

Cyclonus laid down and tried to go into recharge. Ironhide mumbled something about half-pink Seekers chasing someone with spray paint. Cyclonus smiled. Something much like that had happened about two millennia ago. Starscream never forgave Cyclonus for "improving" his paint job. Of course, the punishment for that little stunt hadn't been as much fun…

'_I'm thinking about the past again!'_ Cyclonus groaned, and shut off his optics. _'The universe is conspiring against me to make me remember the past.'_ One by one, his systems started turning off.

'_In fact, trying to forget is causing more harm than good.'_

In his last conscious nanosecond, that one thought was saved onto his motherboard, and stuck in his dreams for the rest of the night.

…..

Ice creeps down your back

But statues can't feel cold…

Leave your cold statue to drift…

Shed your statue…

Always remember 

Who froze you

Because that's the only one

Who can take it back

Escape your statue

Move freely again

And maybe those around you

Can breath a little easier

…..

And there you have chapter 7. I know it might not look like it, but this chapter was pretty important. Though it wasn't until the last part. I'm impressed this chap turned out halfway decent, though. Fics I write at school tend to stink worse that skunks on Baked Bean and Onion Casserole Day, and this was done 80 at school.

You know what's annoying? When you have the whole fic written out and can't do anything with it until you're done with eighth, ninth, and tenth period. And sadly, tenth is tech class. -.-;; We don't get to use the computers in there yet.

Anywho, please review! Update in about a week, I hope!


	8. Ch8: More Harm Than Good

Hi! Here's chapter 8, and I'm sorry it's a week late! Blame school. But at least it's up now.

Pivot: A combined state of admiration and horror? That's a good thing, right? Heh, glad you like the idea of Snow/Cy as an interrogator. The BW thingie was just one stupid little paragraph. I had to do it, it was sad, and yes I do wonder why the slag I mentioned it. I know, Kicker running around there just isn't right, but he really does it in Energon. He's lucky he wasn't slagged in the first episode. Lemme know if you ever get that blackmail on Prime and the Omnis. Heheheh… As far as I can tell, Energon comes in little rocks that Transformers can't touch if they don't want a jolt. Omnicons have to make them useable back at Ocean City. Omnicons are basically the Autobot, non-gestaltable Constructicons. They build everything. And besides that, they and the Terrorcons are the only ones that can touch Energon w/o getting zapped. The Terrorcons are the new Decepticon army, and as far as I can tell a grand total of three of them can talk. Anyway, thanks for your three reviews, and update soon!

Pretty in Scarlet: Wait for me! ((Grabs Requiem Blaster and chases him with you)) Thankee for reviewing.

Seeker Nami: Having Ironhide thinking he's a duck? XD I'd like to see that! Thanks for the review!

GothMasterFlash: Thanks, I'm honored you like it that much. Yeah, poor Ironhide… heheh…

indigo-ink: Yes. He must die, be roasted over an open fire, and forced to listen to eighteen hours of Cyclonus reciting Monty Python skits by heart. And then recite all the Marx Bros movies, and then we can drag in all the other Decepticons and make then perform Con Warp, Then, to top it all off, we can have Cy dress up as Barney and give him a hug… No, actually, that'd probably scare Cyclonus more than it would our victim… Thanks for the review! Beautiful and fascinating? Eheh… It's really that good? Thanks! You haven't seen Energon yet? Aw, too bad. Don't worry, you'll probably get to see it eventually. Warning: If you think it's not very good, the truth is it isn't until "Crisis in Jungle City." I think that's what it's called… You'll know what it is when you see it.

Haley Macrae: Thank you for that question, you inspired this chapter, the next chapter, and a prequel I'm going to write in the yet-to-be-determined future. And all you did was ask about Cy's past… Thanks for the review and all the unintentional plot-bunnies!

Okay, here's chapter eight, I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers. Slag… I own the title of the game Grand Theft Alien, even though we ALL know what it really is. I own this story, Sparkstarter-the-fictional, and the NtMF poem. Everything else is Hasbro's, unfortunately.

…..

'_In fact, trying to forget is causing more harm than good.'_

'_Trying to forget is causing more harm than good.'_

'_More harm than good.'_

'_More harm than good… why should I forget?'_

'_What am I trying to forget? When I wore the mask? How to wear the mask? Or why I wore the mask?'_

'_Shouldn't I know?'_

…

Cyclonus stepped into the rec room. He'd only been there once before, about two months ago. He was instantly reminded why he hadn't gone back since.

All the conversations in the room petered out, as everyone turned to look at Cyclonus. The heating coils under his face started to warm up, the Transformer equivalent of a blush. All he had wanted was to play one of the holo games. Cyclonus glanced at the holoscreen on the other side of the room with the gaminc console hooked up. No one was on it, but it was very far away. He'd better just make up an excuse and move on

"_Is… Sparkstarter in h-here?" Cyclonus asked quickly, making up a name. The coils under his face got even hotter. He'd stuttered. He felt like such an idiot. It would've been better if he'd just walked out without saying anything._

_The Decepticons glanced at each other in befuddlement. Only two or three were actually looking around the room for the fictional Sparkstarter, until someone said, "Nope. He's not here."_

"_Oh," Cyclonus mumbled, wishing the floor would just swallow him. "Wrong room." He quickly backed out of the doorway and moved down the hallway just far enough away that no one could see him. Slowly, the conversation came back, but it was still hushed. Cyclonus looked at the floor forlornly. Everywhere he went, that happened. He was a prototype Transformer, the first to be designed to fly with a rotor, but the Decepticons here didn't know that. They just knew he was… different. Very different. The first day someone had suggested he might be an Autobot spy, and since then his reputation had never really recovered. And since he was a fairly new Transformer-- only a few months old-- he didn't know what to do when things like this happened. He was a complete outsider._

"Frrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaak_," someone in the room said. "What's that guy's name? Psycho-Nutz, or somethin'?" The others in the room laughed._

"_He's weird, I'll give ya that," someone else said. "He hasn't said more'n fifty words since he got here."_

"_And what's with that pinwheel?" someone else yelled, which made everyone laugh again._

_Cyclonus was suddenly very concious of the propeller on his back. He was proud of being a prototype, but he wasn't sure he'd have wanted to be one if he'd known it would get this kind of response. Not that he had had a choice, he was just created that way._

_Wanting to get away from the others, he started walking down the hall towards the nearest exit. Maybe if he could get outside and fly around a little, he'd feel better._

_Cyclonus stopped dead in his tracks. Go flying? With his "pinwheel?"_

_And give everyone else another reason to isolate him?_

…

Cyclonus turned on his optics, and looked around. He was still in the stupid tiny room with the stupid Autobot Ironhide. It had only been a dream. All that stuff had happened millions of years ago.

Cyclonus sat up and glanced at Ironhide. Still recharging. Cyclonus decided to bug the Autobot again, to distract himself from the memory, and fired a shot that hit the wall just over Ironhide's head. He sat up quickly. "Did the Autobots come back?"

"Naah," Cyclonus said, waving Ironhide off. "That was just Leader-1 coming to get revenge on Megatron for forgetting about him."

"Oh." Ironhide was awake now. "Who's Leader-1?"

"Clench."

"Okaaaaaay, who's Clench?"

"Leader-1."

Ironhide narrowed his optics. "Okay then, who are Leader-1 and Clench?"

"You just answered your own question!" Cyclonus said. After several million years of practice, annoying people took no effort at all. He wasn't even concentrating.

"Fine, be that way," Ironhide muttered, turning the other way. "I bet there is no Leader-1 or Clench or whatever. I'm not even going to bother trying to talk to you."

Cyclonus smirked. "Is that a promise?"

"Slag yeah! I'm not talking to you until the Autobots rescue me! And when they come, I'll LAUGH IN YOUR FA--"

"You're still talking," Cyclonus pointed out, and Ironhide shut his mouth and turned away.

Ironhide would only be able to keep this up so long. He'd talk eventually. Cyclonus picked up a sharp rock and started making little scratch marks on the stone floor. If he kept this up long enough, Ironhide would have to ask what he was doing.

Scratching rocks doesn't exactly use much brainpower, so Cyclonus let his thoughts wander back to his dream. He remembered that day very well. Not only had his propeller been insulted that day, that had also been the morning of the battle he had "snapped" in. They'd never mocked his propeller again. As far as Cyclonus knew, no other Transformer had been made anything like him. He had been the only one with a propeller, and now, he didn't have on either. And so the legacy dies before it even began, with Cyclonus being rebuilt in 6.3 seconds flat.

'_6.3 seconds…'_ Cyclonus thought, and with a start realized, _'If it only takes that long to reformat, who don't I just reverse it? There are hundreds of reformatting station on Cybertron! I can fly again, any time I want! Why didn't I think of that before?'_

Why?

'_Because,'_ Cyclonus suddenly realized, _'this whole time, the problem wasn't that I couldn't fly, but this body isn't _my_ body._

'_But I haven't been "me" for millions of years, so I shouldn't care about my old body at all, right? Unless, all that time, I _was_ me.'_

'_And if that was me, they why don't I want to act like that?'_

"Wow. My head hurts."

Ironhide glanced at Cyclonus, who was still carving on the ground like he hadn't said anything. He opened his mouth to ask Cyclonus what he was talking about, remembered the promise he had just made, and shut if again. Instead, he sullenly watched Cyclonus make those weird marks.

Ironhide was suddenly interested. What could be so fascinating about making little mark-things on the ground that it would make someone's head hurt? He was about to ask, remembered again he couldn't, and instead glared at Cyclonus.

'_I've got to be careful about what I promise,'_ Ironhide thoughts, just a few minutes too late. The curiosity was driving him crazy.

Yes, Cyclonus is very good at his job.

…

Bzzzt. Bzzzt. BOOOOM! Sizzle. "Take that, ya green freak! My lasers are MORE than a match for you." Stomp, stomp. "Hmph. Big guy. No problem, I'll just jump to the side--" Squish. "… Dang."

The words GAME OVER scrolled across the screen. Kicker groaned and threw down his controller. "Stupid game," he muttered. "Why'd I even buy Grand Theft Alien?" He waited for someone to tell him to stop whining, and when no one did, he glanced around the room at the Autobots in there. They were in the rec room, and when there was nothing else to do that was the only room you could find anyone. Currently, most of the Transformers were talking, except for Demolisher, who was busy glaring at the wall, and Optimus Prime, who was doing paperwork. Same old, same old. Everyone was here, except…

"Where's Ironhide?" Kicker asked. The other Autobots looked at each other, then around the room, finally noticing the four-day absence of their fellow soldier.

"He's probably somewhere else in the city," Prime said absently, still reading over some thingamabob.

'_Why do we call Ocean City a 'city,' anyway? It's a stinkin' military base an' everyone knows it!'_ Kicker thought, but said, "I haven't seen him for half a week! I can never get rid of him this long!" Kicker grinned. "If you see him, tell him to keep up the good work." With that, he picked up his controller and started a new game.

They all forgot about it and went back to what they were doing. But only a few moments later, Hot Shot said, "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Ironhide in a few days."

That got everyone's attention. Hot Shot was always running around the base. If Ironhide was there, Hot Shot would have known it.

"Has anyone seen him?" Prime asked, putting down his datapad. He was starting to get worried. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen Ironhide either…

Everyone in the room was wracking their memories, trying to remember seeing him. The only one who wasn't was Demolisher.

Demolisher had seen Ironhide frozen to the ground on the canyon planet. Either he was still there or the Decepticons had gotten him. Most likely, he was being kicked around by Megatron as they spoke. "I think I saw him a couple of days ago."

The room turned towards Demolisher. "When did you see him?" Prime asked, trying not to sound anxious.

"When the city was raised to launch the scouting expedition to the dark side of Mercury. I think Ironhide was with them," Demolisher lied easily. A scouting mission had been sent out two days earlier, to see if there was any Energon on Mercury. Most of the planets in Earth's solar system had been explored, but Mercury hadn't, because it was too close to the sun. Mercury had just reached the point where it was farthest from the sun, so an expedition had been sent to the dark side, with lots of extra coolant. It was their best chance to explore it. "It might've been someone else, though. Whoever it was, he was in his alt-mode." That comment was to cover his skidplate, so if the found out Ironhide wasn't there he wouldn't be caught in a direct lie. A trick he'd learned from Cyclonus.

Hot Shot frowned. "I read the list of Transformers that volunteered to go. I don't remember seeing Ironhide's name on it…"

"Then let's check," Jetfire said, standing up. "C'mon, the list will be in the Database."

"The what?" Demolisher asked, but no one answered. Everyone else had already stood up and were leaving, except for Kicker, who had started a new game, and Inferno, who was for no obvious reason pretending to be interested in Grand Theft Alien. Demolisher wouldn't get any answers from them, so he stood up and followed the others.

Jetfire, Hot Shot, Optimus Prime, and Demolisher headed down the hallway. Hot Shot sped up a little to catch up with Jetfire. "Do you believe him?" he asked quietly, gesturing back at Demolisher. Jetfire shook his head.

"I don't believe a word that Decepti-scum said," Jetfire said, "which is exactly why we're checking that list."

Hot Shot nodded. "I can't remember everyone that was on that list, but if you named someone I'd be able to tell you if he was on it or not. And Ironhide wasn't."

"I didn't think so. But until we check the list, we give him the benefit of the doubt."

"Why?" Hot Shot asked. "We don't owe him anything."

"Because Optimus wants us to trust him," Jetfire said, shaking his head as if he couldn't believe it himself.

Hot Shot groaned in frustration. "We can't trust him! He'll be just like Starscream. Get what he wants from us and then crawl back to Megatron."

"Starscream might not have 'crawled back' if a certain yellow Autobot hadn't declared him Public Enemy #1."

Hot Shot looked away from Jetfire. He was right. "Okay, fine. Until we know for sure, we give him the benefit of the doubt."

"And if it turns out Demolisher is lying…" Jetfire prodded.

Hot Shot smirked. "We slag him." 

Jetfire sighed and gave up. He wasn't going to get anything more out of Hot Shot. Besides, that's probably what Jetfire would want to do too.

…

"So, what is this room?" Demolisher stared at the giant computer and wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling rows of datadisks plugged into the walls.

"This is the Database," Prime said. He gestured to the walls. "These disks contain information on everything that's happened in the Autobot army for the last four million years."

Demolisher nodded. Everything, huh? Demolisher could use this to his advantage. "So, would it have a list of the Decepticons that had to sign the… contract?" Prime could tell Demolisher had wanted to put the word "slavery" in front of "contract".

"Yes. It does," Prime said warily. Demolisher was definitely up to something.

"And it would have a list of the Decepticons that were injected with the Nanobots?"

"…Yes," Prime said reluctantly. He wondered what Demolisher wanted to know. Wouldn't be good, that's for sure.

"So it has a lot of information about those Decepticons? And that contract? And the Nanobots?"

"………Yes…"

"What kinduva sick person would have stuff like that?" Demolisher asked angrily, stalking off and leaving a thoroughly annoyed Prime behind. Spending most of his time with Cyclonus had finally paid off. And plus, he had learned what he needed to know. If that computer— or "Database"— had info about Nanobots, Demolisher could find a way to kill them, maybe even completely extract them from his body.

'_Now…'_ Demolisher looked up at the countless datadisks. _'Which one of these would have that info?'_

At the main computer, Hot Shot typed in "Mercury expedition" and clicked Search. In a few seconds, a list of all files that had "Mercury expedition" in the titles were shown. Hot Shot clicked on one that said "Mercury Expedition - Volunteer List".

Demolisher, still looking at the shelves, saw a glow out of the corner of his optic, and turned to look. One of the normally crystal-blue datadisks was glowing a purplish-pink. Demolisher moved towards it, wondering what had caused this one to light up.

"He IS on the list!" Hot Shot said, sounding surprised. Demolisher turned away from the datadisks to look at Hot Shot. He and Jetfire were staring at the screen, shocked. Ironhide's name would be third from the bottom, Demolisher knew. He had put Ironhide on the list himself, a few hours after the expedition had left. He knew that eventually they'd be wondering where the missing Autobot was.

"What'd I tell you?" Demolisher said, coming up behind Hot Shot and Jetfire. "His name's right there!"

"Yeah, you're right," Hot Shot said. He glanced at Jetfire. Jetfire knew what he was thinking. _'We were wrong about him.'_

"So, guess we don't need to worry about him," Hot Shot said, exiting the file. The glowing datadisk on the wall went back to its normal blue. So, that was what it did. When a disk started glowing, it meant that disk had the info that was being displayed. That would be useful.

Now that the minor crisis was over, the three Autobots headed back to the rec room. But Demolisher didn't.

Making sure no one was watching, he went over to the computer and typed in "Nanobot project" and clicked Search. Over fifty files came up, but all the titles were blank. Before Demolisher could click on one, a notice came up on the screen.

RESTRICTED FILES

PASSWORD:

Demolisher's optics narrowed. So, they had planned ahead. That was fine. He could find out what the password was. He glanced at the rows of disks. None of them were glowing. Scrap. That meant that the disks didn't light up until you actually opened a file. Too bad. Demolisher could have just taken the disk without worrying about security protocols…

Demolisher turned off the computer and headed out of the room. He'd find his way out of here yet.

…..

Hi! Sorry I'm so late. Blame school. At least I'm back now…

ckret2


	9. Ch9: Waiting For Rescue

dances a dance of utterly ridiculous insane joy. Go dance. WHOOHOO! I IS DONE WIT A CHAPTER! Mmm-yep, 'tis an UPDATE! w00t! dance dance dance faints

five minutes later…

I shouldn't be dancing that much. It'll use up all my sugar high… Reviews!

Haley Macrae: Hi, and thankee much for the inspiration. You've added yet another bunny to the clan of NtMF. I've named him Danny.

Pretty in Scarlet: Thank you! And thanks for being patient. Eheh… think I took enough time on that update? whistles innocently I can't help it if every time I start to write chapter nine I lose it at school… Well, maybe I can…

Seeker Nami: Petro-rabbits? Are they like plotbunnies? None for me, thanks!… Wait, I remember your petro-rabbits. Worse than bunnies. DEFINITELY none for me! Yeah, it is sad when people laugh at different people. Who's gotten that before? raises hand For being a Transfan, for being a smart female, for not having a tan (okay, I'm pale), for not being sexually active (icky hormone-saturated boys), et cetera and so forth. Poor Cy. He needs all the hugs he can get. huggles the poor psycho

Soryu: Thank you much. People like my Cy/Snowcat. Yay!

Pivot: Pivvy! I'll review Overwhelmed as soon as I have time. Which'll probably be right after I post this, hopefully… Cy didn't have a rotor before Earth? consults Armada screenshots By the Pit! Starscream looks like a GO-BOT! Er… cough Back on topic. Maybe Cy took off his rotor during transportation from Cybertron to Earth? You don't just get reconfigured and suddenly know how to fly, after all. He knew how to fly before, and knowing how different helicopters are from jets, he couldn't have been ground-bound or a seeker on Cybertron. He HAD to have had a rotor! It just makes more sense. Switching topics again: golden honey? snerk That IS what it looks like…

Seiberwing: Yes. Psychology is fun. Very, very fun… And of COURSE Ironhide's gonna go insane! He's locked in a room with Snowcat! Or Cyclonus. Whatever. As to whether or not Demolisher's gonna get back all right; I sure hope so. He's cool! However, I find I have very little control over my plotbunnies. I had a bunny where G1 Starscream died (again), and I didn't want him to! But try telling the bunnies that…

The first part of this is Snowcat/Cy's past, but oddly, past that, he's not in this chapter. I had to cut this chapter in half (due to the fact that I lost the papers with half of chapter nine… they're in my room somewhere), so he'll be in the next chapter.

Oh, and we see the glorious return of an ex-character! Well, maybe not so glorious. Poor guy.

Final note: thanks again to Pivot for beta-ing!

Disclaimer: C'mon. Seriously. What do you think? Exactly.

…

_Two moons orbited Cybertron. One, dubbed Tempest ages ago, was avoided by Autobots and Decepticons alike. It was rumored to be cursed, and the only beings that dared explore it were a few Minicons desperate to escape the war, but eventually they all came back. Despite the fact that it was the larger of the two moons, no one dare claim it, and neither Optimus Prime nor Megatron pushed the matter. Tempest was, quite simply, off-limits._

_The other moon, Cicatrix, was fair game, and control of it switched frequently. Currently, the Decepticons were in charge, operating from Moonbase RQM, in a crater that the Decepticons liked to call a valley. It sounded better that way._

_Six towering ridges of shoved-up rock bordered the crater ("mountains"), guarding it from any ground forces. The only way anyone could get in was by flying, and the near-circular shape of the crater kept unwanted ships from sneaking up on the Moonbase. It was a nearly invincible stronghold, perfect for storing dangerous weapons and plans for more. And if a foolish Autobot team _did_ try to infiltrate the valley, they'd just be good target practice._

_But, occasionally, there _was_ a foolish Autobot team, and when that happened, the Decepticons were usually too surprised to react fast enough. Which was why there was a small team of Autobots with a stolen Decepticon weapon, easily fighting off sixty-odd Decepticons. And that's when the rest of the Decepticon reinforcements arrived._

_A Decepticon dropship landed on a small ledge on the crater's rim (on a southern "mountain"). The sound of explosions and laserfire thundered up the six "mountains" surrounding the crater. Leaning against the wall of the dropship, Cyclonus felt the vibrations of a particularly loud explosion. He fought back a whimper. It was his first battle, and if the dropship came equipped with chairs, he'd have sat down long ago. As it was, he was bracing himself against the garage door-like walls, anxiously waiting for his orders._

_"Welcome to Moonbase RQM, men," their captain, the sniper Reshot, said from the front of the dropship. The Decepticons stopped their conversations to look at him. "As you can tell, things aren't going too good" another vibration rocked the ship, "which is why we've been called in. Now, a lot of you have probably never been off Cybertron, right? How many of you have never fought off-planet?"_

_Cyclonus raised his hand, along with about sixty percent of the group. _'I'm probably the only one who's never fought anywhere, though,_' Cyclonus thought._

_Reshot's shoulders slumped. "Okay... I didn't think it would be this many. This is gonna be tricky. I guess I should explain the situation." Reshot stepped next to a pillar and pushed a button on the side. A holographic bird's-eye view of the six quasi-peaks that surrounded the crater appeared, with an orange cluster on the east side of the crater. Using the end of his sniper rifle, Reshot pointed to the cluster of buildings. "This is Moonbase RQM. It's fairly small, with only thirty or so Decepticons guarding it at one time, but it's well defended." Reshot paused, then added, "We have eighty Minicons on guard here."_

_The soldiers murmured appreciatively. Eighty Minicons! At one base! It was hard enough to find eight within a hundred miles of each other, much less eighty at one little base._

_"There is a reason, of course, for this security," Reshot said, and the murmuring died down. "About a month and a half ago, a new Minicon gestalt team was uncovered here. For the time being, it's been named the RQM Blaster. The three Minicons that make it were kept here," Reshot pointed at the building at the very center of the base, "until three days ago, when an Autobot team of about ten infiltrated the base, stole the RQM Blaster, and shot their way back to 15 Autobots hidden here." Reshot pointed to the left of the mountain on top of the hologram. "The Minicons stationed here distracted them long enough for more of our guys to get here. We're part of the second wave of reinforcements." _

_Reshot pushed a button, and the hologram image shimmered and disappeared. "So, these are your objectives; kill as many Autobots as possible, and recover the RQM Blaster by any means necessary. Now get outta here." Reshot pushed another button on the beam, and the walls rolled up. "And be careful around the Autobot with the Blaster!"_

_A few Decepticons started warily leaving the dropship, craning their necks as if they could see the RQM Blaster from the ledge they were on. Cyclonus was about to leave the ship himself when a voice asked the question they were all thinking. "Hey, what exactly does this RQM Blaster do?"_

_Reshot glared at the curious Decepticon, then reluctantly spoke to the whole group. "Well, you see, it"_

_His words were cut off as an explosion literally rocked the crater side. It jerked back, then forward, and sank down half a foot into the crater before it stabilized again. All the Decepticons were thrown from their feet except Cyclonus, who had freaked out and instinctively started his rotor._

_Reshot slowly pushed himself to his knees. "That," he said slowly, trying to sound calm and failing miserably, "was the RQM Blaster."_

_Cyclonus, hovering just outside the dropship, stared down at the battlefield with horrified fascination_. 'There's a gun down there that could chop six inches off a craterside? The base of it? How?_' Cyclonus searched the battlefield far below for a flash of light that might betray the Blaster's location. _'What will it be like to be on the same battlefield as something like that? What would it be like to steal it back for the Decepticons?_'_

_For the first time in his short life, Cyclonus was actually, honestly eager to do something. He wanted to see that Blaster. Cyclonus glanced at his fellow soldiers. None of them looked like they wanted to get up any time soon. Not that he wanted any of them to come. _'They aren't my friends,'_ Cyclonus thought, remembering what they had said about his rotor. Without waiting for __the others, Cyclonus transformed and joined the battle._

…

((on Earth...))

Demolisher stood, hidden, about twenty feet above the entrance to Ocean City. The ornamentation on the outer walls wasn't very elaborate, but it was enough so that Demolisher could find a ledge on the wall where he couldn't be seen, but he could see the entrance.

There had to be some kind of security guarding the city. Demolisher just didn't know what. But if he could find out what it was maybe he could use it to get into the nanobot files in the datadisk library. Reverse engineering, or something. '_Slaggit, I don't know what I'm doing!_' Demolisher thought. '_But this is the only idea I have right now._'

Bored, Demolisher looked down the road. Nothing, nothing... wait! A car!

'_Finally!_' Demolisher thought. '_I didn't think anyone would come today!_' Demolisher had already been out there since dawn. About seven hours ago.

Demolisher watched the black vehicle draw closer, waited for it to slow down... and it never did. It just went straight through the entrance.

Demolisher stared in disbelief. "There's no security?" He quickly climbed down the wall and stared at the entrance. "None!" Demolisher ran inside and out again. Nothing.

"This is so stupid!" Demolisher yelled, firing a couple of experimental shots through the entrance. Nothing again. "What're the Autobots supposed to do if someone attacksHEY!"

A small LED bulb over the entrance turned red, and a metal wall slid down over the entrance. Demolisher stared at it a moment. '_Hey, this is the security I was looking for..._' Demolisher started pounding on the door.

"SLAGGIN' AUTOBOTS! LET ME IN, FREAGGIT! IT'S NOT TOO LATE FOR ME TO GO BACK TO THE DECEPTICONS!" Demolisher paused. "Uh not that I would!" he lied.

The door didn't open. Demolisher leaned against the door, thoroughly annoyed. "It's not like I wanted to be in there anyway," he muttered. '_But if Prime uses those stupid nanobots on me because I'm out here, I'm gonna kick his skidplate from here to Cybertron._'

Reluctantly settling in for the long wait ahead, Demolisher sat on the ground, leaning his head against the door and puling his knees up to his chest. Apparently, people only came by every seven hours.

It was, by a human's standards, a "nice" day outside, to Demolisher's chagrin. The sky was the same ugly shade as an Autobot's optics, the sun was the same shape and color as the top of a radioactive mushroom, and two sea gulls were wheeling lazily above the road. Demolisher watched them circle a few times.

'_Wait a second…_' Demolisher sat up, watching the birds more closely. Something seemed wrong about the gulls. They were just a little too big, their circles a little too perfect. Demolisher stood up, still keeping an optic on them. After a couple of minutes, they hadn't flapped their wings once to stay up. '_They could be Terrorcons… but what would two be doing out here?_'

After considering his options (follow the birdies or wait for an Autobot to let him in), Demolisher transformed and headed towards the ersatz gulls. If there were Terrorcons, then Decepticons had to be nearby. And if Decepticons were around, maybe they'd have a plan to rescue him.

Demolisher stopped under the "gulls," transformed, and looked straight up. They were definitely Terrorcons. But what were they doing out here?

"Don't move." Demolisher felt a light pressure on the back of his head. A blade of some kind. "Do not contact the Autobots, do not attack the Terrorcons or me, and do not try to escape. I have orders to kill you if you do."

"Why would I do any of that? I'm on your side," Demolisher said. "So Starscream, does Megatron have a plan to get me out of here yet?"

"Well…" The pressure from the blade lightened a bit when Starscream saw Demolisher wasn't about to radio the Autobots. "No, not yet. We wanted to see why you're here, first. You are being kept here against your will, right?"

"Well duh!" Demolisher pointed to his back. "See that? That's the biggest slaggin' Decepticon logo anyone in this army's ever worn, and I'm not about to take it off!"

"All right then." The pressure disappeared entirely. Demolisher turned to face Starscream.

"So, if you're not here by choice, what are you doing with the Autobots?"

"They put these nanobot things in me. If I do anything wrong, they can kill me from the inside out," Demolisher winced at the memory of the first time the nanobots were used against him. "And they're really painful."

Starscream nodded. "So, where are they? Inside you?"

"Yeah. When they're not activated, they're just floating in my mech-fluid."

Starscream shuddered. "That's disgusting."

"I know," Demolisher said. "They're in there all the time, just sitting there until I mess up badly enough and they get to kill me." He kicked the ground angrily. "They're just FLOATING there! And what if they malfunction, huh? I could die today, and the slaggin' Autobots would just watch because they'd think I'd done something wrong and deserved it! What if the nanobots go psycho and take over my body! What THEN?" Demolisher whirled around and shook his fists at Ocean City. "I'll get you for this, Prime!"

Starscream raised his sword and made a quick cut on Demolisher's wrist. "Hey!" Demolisher grabbed his arm. "What was that for?"

"Your yelling was annoying," Starscream said, then looked up and gestured to one of the Terrorcons. It started flying towards them. "And besides, I needed a sample of your mech-fluid."

The Terrorcon landed, looked between the two Decepticons, and immediately attacked Demolisher's arm. Demolisher yelped and tried to knock it off.

"Calm down," Starscream said crossly. "It's just trying to get the mech-fluid you're leaking."

"I don't want it to get my mech-fluid!" Demolisher finally knocked the Terrorcon off. It floated a few feet away. A pink pearl-like crystal formed on its back, where the Energon stars usually formed. Demolisher backed away from the Terrorcon, then hesitantly asked, "Is that my…?"

"Yes." Starscream picked up the orb. "I'm taking this back to Unicron. We'll use it to find a way to get rid of the nanobots."

"Oh," Demolisher said weakly, then blurted out, "So, are you _really_ a ghost?"

Starscream gave Demolisher a strange look. _"What?"_

"Uh, well, y'know, you used to be dead and now you're not, you can go invisible and stuff, you're not freaked out about holding someone else's mech-fluid…" Demolisher finally noticed the look Starscream was giving him. "Never mind," he mumbled.

Starscream gave Demolisher a final looked, then continued as if nothing had happened. "As soon as we come up with a way to get you out, we'll let you know. Keep watching for the Terrorcons." With that, Starscream shimmered out of view and the Terrorcon took off.

'_He's a ghost,'_ Demolisher decided, and was about to leave, when he realized that maybe a ghost could get past the Energon towers, but a Terrorcon couldn't.

"Wait! Starscream!" Demolisher said. "How do you get past the Energon towers?"

For a long moment, Demolisher thought Starscream was gone. Just as he was about to give up and leave, a phantom voice spoke. "We go through an ozone hole. The Energon waves travel on the ozone layer, and since there's a gap there the Energon can't protect that spot." Starscream's voice lowered. "If you dare tell the Autobots about that hole…"

"I think they already know about the hole," Demolisher said, remembering something he'd seen on the human news channel, "but I won't tell them we can get in through it. I'd die first."

"Good. Because if you tell, you _will_," Starscream said. A second later, Demolisher decided he was finally alone and started the walk back to Ocean City.

Demolisher froze. He thought he'd felt something. Nothing physical, but… _'The nanobots!'_ Demolisher braced himself for the first dizzying wave of torture, and then realized it was only the com-link Prime had given him buzzing.

Feeling stupid, Demolisher flipped a mental switch to turn it on. "I'm coming, just open the slagging door! You idiots locked me out!"

There was a long, staticky pause. _'I bet not many Autobots answer the com-link like that,'_ Demolisher thought smugly.

"Um, what door?"

"The stupid entrance to the stupid city. I'm stuck outside."

"Oh, sorry," the Autobot said sheepishly. "We'll fix that. Anyway, after you get in, Optimus wants you to do something…"

"No! Really? Is that why you contacted me! I never would have guessed!" Demolisher exclaimed, transforming and heading back towards Ocean City.

The Autobot cleared his throat irritably, an Autobot habit that Demolisher didn't see the point of. "May I go on?"

"Oh, do pardon me and my abysmal Decepticon manners! Please, do continue!" Demolisher said cheerily. Once again, hanging out with Cyclonus had proved to be useful.

Demolisher could practically hear the Autobot trying to come up with a good reason to leave him locked outside. He finally sighed, another pointless Autobot habit. "Optimus said you should show the new guy around. While the Mercury Expedition is gone, and especially since Ironhide is with him," Demolisher stifled a chuckle, "we're short on help. So, we called in a couple of guys from Cybertron. The first got here today."

Demolisher had a flash of insight. "Is his alt-mode a black car?"

"Er, yes, it is. Have you met him?"

"No."

By the time Demolisher got back to Ocean City, the entrance was open again. He transformed and walked through the entrance as slowly as he could. '_Take that!'_ he thought smugly, right before the door slammed closed an inch behind his back.

Demolisher jumped forward with a small squeak, then whirled around to face the door. After two seconds of careful deliberation, Demolisher decided that the door was no longer his problem, as long as he was inside the city. Instead, he scanned the courtyard for the black Autobot. Black wasn't a very popular color in the Autobot ranks, but Demolisher still wasn't able to see him. "So, why do I have to show this guy around?"

"Because you're an Autobot now and should be willing to help out," the Autobot said coldly. _'He's probably wondering why I won't leave him alone,'_ Demolisher thought. _'Tough luck, bud, this is the most fun I've __had in three weeks and I'm not about to stop.'_

"Ha ha. Seriously."

The Autobot sighed wearily. "He's an ex-Decepticon, like you, and Optimus though it'd be best if someone like him showed him around."

"Oh. Great," Demolisher grumbled. He thought he'd just have to deal with some stupid Autobot. But no! He was stuck with a turncoat! _'Well, at __least that explains his paint job.'_

He decided to just go back to his quarters and act like he'd looked and never found the guy. Demolisher headed towards his barracks. "So, what's his name?" he asked as he keyed in the password to the barracks, idly wondering if it had been anyone he knew.

"His name is Wheeljack."

"It's _what_?" The barrack doors slid open and revealed a surprised black and gold 'Con, his hand about to type in the code to let himself outside. Demolisher gaped at him, instinctively switching his com-link off.

They stared at each other a long moment, trying to figure out what to say.

"... Nanobots, I take it?"

Wheeljack smiled sadly.

((On Unicron...))

Megatron was sitting in the core of Unicron, optics off, wired into his throne. He was watching Snowcat and Ironhide. Snowcat hadn't said anything for two days. He'd just sat on the ground and started making little marks with a rock.

Megatron frowned. _'The next time the Autobot's recharging,_' he thought, '_Snowcat had better explain what he thinks he's doing._'

"Megatron! I talked to Demolisher! You were right, he's not with the Autobots by choice."

Megatron turned on his optics and glared at Starscream. "I already knew that. Now, did you really need to bother me to tell me that?"

"Um..." Starscream shrank back, his outlines shivering shimmering slightly. He wanted to disappear but was afraid to. "N-no sir, Megatron. Not really."

"I didn't think so," Megatron snarled, turning his optics back off.

"But I found out why he's with the Autobots."

Megatron turned his optics back on. Starscream shuddered, his form wavering as he leaned against the wall. He looked ready for a quick escape.

'_Coward. What happened to the old Starscream? He may have been insubordinate but at least he wasn't afraid to fight!'_ Megatron thought bitterly. _'But, then again, I don't need another Shockblast...'_

Pushing his thoughts aside, Megatron stood up, disconnecting the wires that attached him to Unicron. "So, what is Demolisher doing over there?"

Starscream became solid once more, confident that he wasn't about to have his head shot off. "He said the Autobots put nanobots in his mech-fluid, sir. If he does anything the Autobots don't want him to do, they'll activate and torture him. I think." Starscream shrugged. "Demolisher didn't exactly say what they did, but he implied that's what they'd do."

"He didn't say?" Megatron frowned. "You'd think that he wouldn't leave out information like that if he wanted to get away from the Autobots."

"That _is_ suspicious, sir," Starscream said agreeably.

'_Shut up.'_ "Is that all you learned from Demolisher?"

Starscream nodded. "And I got a sample of his mech-fluid, so we could find a way to neutralize the nanobots." He pulled out the crystallized orb and held it out. "He was reluctant to let me take it."

"Was he?" Megatron took the orb carefully. _'Demolisher has always been a loyal Decepticon. I wouldn't think he'd be the kind to switch factions...'_

Megatron sat back down on his throne. With a single thought, he located the glass shards that had been one of Unicron's optics, shattered long before Alpha-Q had stolen his head. Megatron began carefully reconstructing the optic.

"Um... sir?" Starscream asked hesitantly. "What are you doing?"

"Making this so I can see the nanobots," Megatron muttered distractedly.

"Oh, I see," Starscream lied. He watched Megatron labor for a few minutes. After trying to figure out what Megatron was doing by watching, Starscream gave in to curiosity. "How does"

"Unicron's optics can magnify things billions of times," Megatron cut in, "which is how he was capable of seeing us. When he killed you ten years ago, it wasn't by chance. He could see you perfectly, down to the Decepticon insignia on your wings."

"Oh, right. I get it," Starscream lied again, wondering how Megatron knew about Unicron's optics and, not for the first time, what his previous life had been like. Apparently, he had at least been a Decepticon.

'_Well, of course I was!'_ Starscream told himself. '_As if I'd ever even consider being an Autobot.'_ Satisfied that he'd been as loyal a Decepticon as they came, Starscream decided to just stand and wait until Megatron finished putting the optic back together.

"That should do it..." Megatron murmured, surveying a piece of glass about five feet tall and three feet wide. It was barely a spec of Unicron's optic, but it was more than large enough to serve their purposes. Megatron held out the orb for a wire from the roof to pick up and hold suspended behind the optic shard.

'_Oh, so that's what Megatron's using the optic for,'_ Starscream thought. Though, of course, he'd NEVER actually doubted his leader. He simply hadn't understood him.

Starscream moved to Megatron's side so he could get a better view of the mech-fluid orb, and immediately wished he hadn't. Despite the fact that it was crystallized, the pinkish mech-fluid still seemed to be alive. Magnified by the glass of the green optic, the mech-fluid looked almost like a living, sentient liquid, frozen in its writhing just behind the glass. Starscream shivered and moved unconsciously closer to his leader.

'_No wonder Demolisher didn't want to get near that orb_,' Starscream thought. '_I don't want to, and it's not even my…'_

Starscream jumped as the optic shattered. Megatron stood over the shards, trembling with rage. "No nanobots," he growled. "Demolisher... that dirty TRAITOR!"

Starscream backed away, his form wavering. This, he decided, would be a very good time to check up on Snowcat.

'_This isn't going to be good for Demolisher…'_ Starscream thought, vanishing from view.

…..

Yay, it's FINISHED! I updated! MWAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!

Oh, and please review.

Rin'nro Zeek'reet, ter'aon. B'wa!

**Edit as of April 12, 2007 - two years after previous update:**

I've had two reviews in recent times asking where I am; after all, the last post was March 2005. Both were anonymous reviews, and while I love both signed and anonymous reviews, I cannot reply to the anons if you don't leave an email address. Please, if you're going to ask me a question in a review, give me a way to contact you.

So. As to why this thing hasn't been updated, it's for a few reasons: 1) I think the first few chapters of this are rather crappily written. If I wanted to continue, I'd be rather embarrassed as a writer if I didn't go back and fix those up first. Which I don't have time to do. 2) I just lost inspiration. Yep, after spending ages working on this thing, it just died on me. Sorry. 3) I was getting my own plotline confused. By chapter nine, I honestly had no clue whether Snowcat was sane and slowly going mad, or mad and slowly going sane, or both/none of the above. If I had continued this, it'd most likely have turned into a slagheap of confused drama that didn't know what it was doing.

If I ever do continue this, it'll be with huge edits. And it won't be for a long time. Feel free to ask me to update and/or offer suggestions if you really want to (though I can't promise anything...) but I'm just adding this to answer the questions of the anon reviewers who didn't leave email addresses. Thankee.


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